Date: 29 August 2012
Contact:
Emmanuel Ndlovu
Programmes
and Advocacy Manager
Bulawayo
Progressive Residents Association (BPRA)
BULAWAYO Progressive Residents Association (BPRA)
believes that immediate steps should be taken to decentralize the State Procurement
Board (SPB) to other regions in the country as part of a broader effort to
promote equity in development among the country’s regions. This follows
recommendations by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Budget, Finance and
Investment Promotion recently that the SPB should be overhauled due to among
other things corruption in awarding of tenders.
Currently, state entities flight tenders through the
SPB which is based in Harare, something which the Parliamentary Portfolio
Committee on Budget, Finance and Investment Promotion is arguing favours
contractors resident in Harare. Tenders are also advertised in newspapers with
wider circulation in the capital and therefore not readily accessible to
contractors in other parts of the country, while contractors from outside are
also disadvantaged in that they have to travel to Harare to bid for tenders. In
addition to this, BPRA believes the centralization of state procurement
procedures is partly responsible for the exodus of companies to the capital
which has led to high levels of unemployment in the city.
BPRA thus concurs with the Parliamentary Portfolio
Committee on Budget, Finance and Investment Promotion that the SPB should be
decentralized to other regions in the country as this would lead to a fairer distribution
of opportunities to contractors ultimately leading to more equitable
development among the regions. It is BPRA’s belief that one of the reasons why
peripheral regions such as Matabeleland, Masvingo, Manicaland and the Midlands
lag in terms of development is due to the fact that most of the country’s
economic and political activities are centralized in Harare, hence benefiting
mostly people from the capital. This is why the association is an advocate of
devolution of power, which is one of the ways of ensuring that all regions in
the country assume control of their resources and take control of development
issues in their areas, which would guarantee that all regions develop
equitably.
Last year BPRA played a fundamental role in derailing
attempts to centralize procurement procedures for local authorities to Harare
through the General Laws Amendment Bill (2010). The bill sought to among other
things amend the Procurement Act by abolishing Local Procurement Boards and
centralizing the procurement procedures of all local authorities in the country
to the SPB. What BPRA feared would happen if that move were to go ahead –
corruption and marginalization of other regions - has manifested itself in the
operations of the SPB. The association is therefore calling for the decentralization
of the SPB to ensure that contractors in all regions have an equal chance of
bidding for and winning tenders.
Regards
................................................
Mr Emmanuel Ndlovu
Programmes and Advocacy Manager
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