By IOL Press Reporter 20 h back
Cape Town– The DA has actually welcomed the choice by the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) to reserve the Preferential Procurement Laws of 2017 and state them invalid.
The judgment will help to combat corruption and end the uncompetitive exclusion of suppliers, the DA stated, as state-owned firms can no longer disqualify prospective contractors who are not bulk black-owned without very first considering the rate and proposition of the tender.
The SCA said in its judgment: “Any pre-qualification criteria which is looked for to be enforced need to have as its goal the development of the requirements of section 217( 1) of the constitution. The prequalification criteria stipulated in policy 4 and other guidelines do not satisfy this requirement.”
DA financing representative Geordin Hill-Lewis said in a statement on Tuesday the application of the so-called “pre-qualification criteria” was one of the most significant chauffeurs of corruption in public procurement, “under the fig leaf of BBBEE and empowerment”.
In an appeal case brought by NPO Afribusiness, the SCA discovered that the Minister of Financing (Pravin Gordhan at the time) acted illegally and exceeded his powers when he used area 5 of the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework to introduce the Preferential Procurement Regulations of2017
The regulations were for that reason stated invalid as a result of their inconsistency with the provisions of the procurement policy structure.
” The judgment has far-reaching consequences for public procurement in South Africa as it calls into question the continued usage of BBBEE p
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