Public Procurement Bill 2023 Submission of Public Comment

PARI argues that the Public Procurement Bill 2023 misinterprets Section 217 of the Constitution, particularly regarding preferential procurement, and risks legal instability by deferring too much substance to unpublished subordinate instruments. The submission proposes specific rewrites to Section 17 to ensure a mandatory national legislative framework for economic development and local content. It further recommends strengthening whistleblower protections, expanding automatic exclusions for political office-bearers, and clarifying access and disclosure clauses to prevent the Bill from becoming a 'secrecy clause'.

• The Bill's current phrasing of Section 17(1) removes the mandatory nature of preferential procurement, potentially limiting the state's ability to use its annual procurement expenditure for economic development and failing to reinstate mandatory B-BBEE and local content requirements.
• Section 17 of the Bill fails to meet the constitutional standard of a national legislative framework because it provides no substantive guidance or constraints on how procuring institutions should exercise their powers to promote specific categories of persons or enterprises.
• The Bill relies excessively on subordinate legislation (regulations, instructions, and prohibitions), which PARI argues increases the risk of procurement operations becoming unmoored from constitutional principles and may violate participation rights under the Nedlac Act.
• The proliferation of overlapping subordinate instruments issued by various authorities (the Minister, Public Procurement Office, provincial treasuries, and procuring institutions) may lead to legal fragmentation, operational rigidity, and increased costs for businesses.
• PARI recommends expanding the list of persons automatically excluded from submitting bids to include political party office-bearers and employees of legislatures to prevent self-dealing and corruption.
• Section 26 of the Bill, intended to provide access to procurement processes, is interpreted by some as a 'secrecy clause' because it is vaguely worded and empowers the Public Procurement Office to constrain access.
• The submission argues for the creation of a public register of automatically excluded persons, their immediate family members, and related persons who contract as suppliers to better regulate conflicts of interest.

APA

Meny-Gibert, S., Brunette, R., & Klaaren, J. (2023). Public Procurement Bill 2023 Submission of Public Comment. Public Affairs Research Institute. https://pari.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/PARI_PublicProcurementBill_2023_Submission.pdf

Chicago

Meny-Gibert, Sarah, Ryan Brunette, and Jonathan Klaaren. Public Procurement Bill 2023 Submission of Public Comment. Public Affairs Research Institute, 2023. https://pari.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/PARI_PublicProcurementBill_2023_Submission.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Meny-Gibert |first1=Sarah |last2=Brunette |first2=Ryan |last3=Klaaren |first3=Jonathan |title=Public Procurement Bill 2023 Submission of Public Comment |publisher=Public Affairs Research Institute |date=11 September 2023 |url=https://pari.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/PARI_PublicProcurementBill_2023_Submission.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{menygibert2023public, author = {Meny-Gibert, Sarah and Brunette, Ryan and Klaaren, Jonathan}, title = {{Public Procurement Bill 2023 Submission of Public Comment}}, publisher = {Public Affairs Research Institute}, year = {2023}, month = sep, url = {https://pari.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/PARI_PublicProcurementBill_2023_Submission.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }