Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has responded to Cosatu’s criticism of the City’s Constitutional Court bid to invalidate the Public Procurement Act.
In a statement on 19 May, Cosatu said that the City and Western Cape Government “make the mistake of assuming that whilst they have strong systems in place, that this is replicated across other provinces and municipalities – it is not, and in fact is a horror story, hence the need for a drastic overhaul for the entry point of state capture and corruption: our weak public procurement systems”.
In reply, Hill-Lewis said Cosatu can help the fight against procurement corruption in municipalities without the need for unconstitutional legislation that will slow service delivery with even more red tape.
“The aim to overhaul procurement and fight corruption is undermined by the fatal flaws in public participation and unlawful passing of the Public Procurement Act. Besides this, the Act brings a raft of red tape that will slow delivery, and is a constitutional overreach by national government into the local sphere,” said Hill-Lewis.
“Cosatu’s network of members can help the fight against procurement corruption in municipalities without this unconstitutional legislation that will slow service delivery with even more red tape. While Cosatu acknowledges the ‘strong systems’ in Cape Town and the Western Cape, the federation should already be at the frontlines addressing the ‘horror story’ they admit exists where their historical political allies govern.”
“The fact is local government must be able to act swiftly to resolve urgent water, sanitation, electrical, waste, and environmental issues. Instead, this Act will slow down municipalities via a massive new red tape burden and interference from other spheres of government. This is unconstitutional, and undermines local government’s direct accountability to serving residents.”
Fatal shortcomings
The Constitutional Court heard arguments this week after granting the City direct access for its bid to invalidate the Public Procurement Act, which the metro warns will slow down local service delivery and undermine the constitutional autonomy of local government. The City’s full Concourt application is available here: Public Procurement Bill Application.
The City argued that the Act was passed unlawfully, with fatal shortcomings in public participation and parliament’s procedures, including that seven of nine provinces did not have lawful final mandates to vote on the bill in the NCOP.
The City has wide-ranging concerns about new red tape introduced in the Bill, including the fact that municipalities won’t be able to maintain their own database of accredited suppliers, and payments to suppliers will need to be integrated with a national database.
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Furthermore, centralising all national procurement via a Public Procurement Office (PPO) further runs the risk of nationwide disruptions to municipal procurements if the central system goes offline.
Municipalities will no longer have the power to lawfully deviate from procurement regulations for urgent service delivery without centralised approval via the PPO, and spurious tender appeals may hold up service delivery as the Bill limits the ability to conclude contracts while tender awards are reviewed.
Hill-Lewis said that the Bill will also undermine infrastructure investment by making public private partnerships too complex and time-consuming.
The City is further concerned that around 36 elements of the Bill require new regulations, exposing local government to hidden cost implications and red tape burdens. Further, the Bill positions the National Finance Minister as a regulatory authority over local government, which is inconsistent with the Constitution, Municipal Systems Act and the Municipal Finance Management Act.
