PPADB gets tougher on contractors

ISAIAH MOREWAGAE
Staff Writer | Friday March 29, 2013 00:00

 

In its work against corruption that has milked the country of millions of pulas, Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Board (PPADB) has introduced Code of Conduct, which aims at governing the behaviour of contractors.

Clause 3.1 under the heading Collusion and Fronting, it states that a contractor shall not manipulate his or her true shareholding, directorship, management, employees or financial resources in order to be compliant with the requirements of Section 121 of the Act regarding categorisation of contractors in terms of ownership.

'A contractor shall not be involved in fronting, tokenism, window dressing and 'rent-a-Motswana' practices during the tendering stage or when seeking registration in the register of contractors under Section 116 of the PPADB Act.

For the purpose of this code terms fronting, tokenism, window dressing and rent-a-Motswana mean the misrepresentation of a material fact of the ownership, management and control, as well as in the skilled and specialist positions of the contractor in order to appear compliant with citizen reservation and citizen preferential treatment and for material gain, advancement or advantage in the procurement process,' Code states.

The Code also prohibits the contractor from subletting or sub-contracting without declaration at a tender stage a disproportionate amount of work, or the core aspect of the assignment to a contractor who does not qualify reservation or preferential treatment.

'This may also take the form of utilising the resources of a contractor who does not qualify for reservation or preferential treatment.

In this regard the true material benefit and advancement does not meaningfully and tangibly accrue to the contractor the due reservation or preferential treatment,' the Code says. It adds that a contractor shall not have predominance of non-executive directors or tokenism whose qualification and experience does not correlate to the core business of the contractor.