Public procurement assistance system launched
MBABANE – Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are the backbone of the economy of Eswatini, as they account to about 60 per cent of the overall business sector.
Public procurement is imperative to 0S0Es as it avails an opportunity for them to purchase goods, services and procure works on behalf of government and State-owned enterprises For Eswatini, in the financial year
, about E billion of the country¶s budget was spent on public procurement reTuirements 7he said amount accounts for an average of
per cent of the national budget and per cent of the gross domestic product *'P according to the :orld %ank statistics 7his was mentioned by Eswatini Public Procurement Regulatory Agency ESPPRA &hief Executive 2fficer &E2 9usi 0atsebula yesterday during the official launch of the Eswatini Public Procurement 7echnical Assistance ProMect
project
7he proMect is funded by the African 'evelopment %ank Af'%
According to &hongo &hitupila from Af'%, the proMect¶s obMectives are to support the development of a transparent, effective and accountable public procurement system She said this would be done through strengthening the capacity of the institution in charge of public procurement, ESPPRA
&hitupila said the proMect would provide targeted technical assistance and knowledge management support to ESPPRA to deliver its mandate of ensuring efficient, effective, transparent, and accountable public procurement systems and practices at all levels, and further undertake selected analytical work to inform legal and institutional reforms and capacity building of procurement professionals
7he proMect shall engage consultants to perform the assessment of the country procurement system using the 2E&' 0ethodology for the Assessment of Procurement Systems 0APS and to provide capacity building to the institutions in charge of public procurement and financial management
Components
7he technical assistance will comprise two main components Assessment of Eswatini¶s procurement systems using the 0APS methodology and capacity building of public officials and private sector 7he proMect is to be implemented over a period of
months between September and September
ESPPRA &E2 0atsebula said public procurement reforms in Eswatini have, to a certain extent improved transparency and fairness in the way public entities PEs conduct their procurement
He said this had been through significant efforts that the ESPPRA has invested in reforming the procurement landscape and strengthening the procurement system of the count
³:e have, as a country, come to gradually start to see the benefits that come with embracing reforms especially on areas of ensuring fairness, competition and transparency in the procurement process as well as the improved administrative and structural systems put in place to enhance efficiency in public procurements,´ he said
7he &E2 mentioned that the challenge was to strike the right balance between flexibility and adhering to the principles of transparency and good governance
7o achieve this, he said it was imperative that introduced initiatives were directed towards filling the gaps and curing the ills that still exist within the system
0atsebula said it would, however, be a difficult task without a holistic diagnosis of the current system
³7herefore, the assessment has come at the perfect time when the agency is in its third-year implementation of the 2rganisational Strategy And this assessment will also be a test of the effectiveness of the strategic activities that the agency has been implementing, which will then inform the direction the strategy should take post ,´ he added
0inistry of Finance, 'irector of Supply &hain and 0anagement 1kululeko 'lamini added that the government acTuires goods, works, services and consultancy services using the procurement system
He said public procurement directly impacted citizens, any failures or non-performance reflects on the efficiency of the government and lack of transparency and corruption, in the public procurement system directly affects the citizens as there would be no service delivery to the public
He added that the benefits of the efficient procurement system was that it promotes economic activity by private sector participation and provides opportunities for S00Es to participate in public procurement
³A vibrant Public Procurement system creates employment opportunities,´ he added