Western Cape publishes SA’s first annual procurement disclosure report

CAPE TOWN – The Western Cape government on Monday launched an annual procurement disclosure report (PDR), the first of its kind in South Africa.

MEC for Finance and Economic Opportunities David Maynier said in a statement that the published report was for the period of March 1, 2020, until March 31, 2021.

The launch occurred at the opening of the provincial treasury’s Procurement Client Centre in Century City, Cape Town.

The annual PDR is over 2,000 pages long and includes more than 6,400 Covid-19 expenditure transactions since March 1, 2020, as well as for the financial year, which is April 1, 2020, until March 31, 2021, for the Western Cape government.

Maynier said that in terms of public procurement, the local government was determined to be the most transparent province in the country.

He said the PDR confirmed that, to date, R2.03 billion (US$147 million) has been committed towards Covid-19-related expenditure across departments and public entities in the province.

The PDR further revealed that a total of R1.524 billion (67.32%) of all Covid-19 expenditure by provincial departments and public entities was spent with small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs), which exceeded the national target of 30%.

A total of R1.524 billion (US$110 million), or 63.59%, of all Covid-19 expenditure was to suppliers in the province. All Covid-19 expenditure to B-BBEE suppliers was a total of R1.29 billion (over US$72 million), or 60.91%.

Maynier said the Health Department had the highest overall expenditure for Covid-19, totalling more than R1 billion (US$72 million), followed by the Education Department which totalled over R431 million (US$31 million) and the Department of Transport and Public works, which totalled R408 million (US$29 million).

Maynier said the local government remained committed to reducing red tape for businesses interested in becoming suppliers to the Western Cape government, hence the opening of the Procurement Client Centre.

“The Procurement Client Centre offers a range of services to improve the ease of doing business with government, including providing procurement support assistance to provincial departments, entities, municipalities and suppliers through our integrated help desk, guiding them through the tender process, and correctly register on National Treasury’s Central Supplier Database (CSD) and the Western Cape Supplier Evidence Bank (WCSEB),” Maynier said.

– African News Agency