PPADB moves in the right direction

Editor | Thursday August 19, 2010 00:00

 At a recent meeting with stakeholders, the procurement body introduced its new disciplinary code.  The public, the contractors and the procuring industry needed the protection that will hopefully be offered by the suggested code. There have been complaints that many companies are unable to deliver on the contracts they have been awarded and yet it appears PPADB is powerless to act and protect the taxpayer.  To make it worse, the non-delivering companies are rewarded with new contracts even before they complete the old ones.  The public feels that regular defaulters need to be subjected to some form of discipline to curb their truancy and failure to deliver.  Often the defaulting companies get millions as the public loses out on two fronts because some of the social infrastructure takes time to be completed after the departure of the defaulting contractors.  We know of clinics and roads that were left incomplete while the contractor would have run away with millions of public funds while communities are left to suffer.

The worst case, in this instance, is the building of the Serowe Stadium, which barely after completion proved to be a safety hazard.  After wasting millions of the public funds, nobody knows what has happened to the company that constructed the stadium.  We are hopeful that the new disciplinary regime will help to weed out unethical conduct that is rampant in the procurement process.  There have been reports of fronting, use of insider trading and bribery between contractors and those who award government tenders.  This is one reason why projects are given to companies that do not have the skills, resources and the wherewithal to do the work.  They get the projects purely on the strength of the bribe they give or the influence they wield.

Some contractors are said to collude to elbow others out of a contract.  In this unethical business, we understand that it is not unlikely to have contractors unduly hedging and fixing prices.  The new PPADB rules will help in reprimanding, suspending and de-listing contractors and their associates when they are found guilty of bribery, collusion, fronting, conflict of interest, uncompetitive and unfair business dealings.  Even in our excitement, we ought to contend with the flipside of the PPADB disciplinary code.  The fear expressed by local contractors that they are the ones that are likely to be de-listed is real. 

Local contractors do not have resources like the multi-national companies.  Their situation is compounded by late payment by government.  All of us want to see local companies doing well and this can only happen when they are paid on time.We view with local contractors that the implementation of this code would be well complemented by a reservation policy. 

While implementing the code, all effort should go towards ensuring that local contractors are not unfairly targeted even without compromising standards.

                                                             Today's thought                   'Not being registered currently does not give you the licence to be corrupt.'                                                           - Moffat Lubinda