Digital procurement key to restoring business confidence: Rodgers

KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Treasury MEC Francois Rodgers on Thursday announced that the department will, at the beginning of next month, be officially launching its E-procurement system designed to eliminate corruption and fruitless expenditure while bringing transparency to the provincial government’s supply chain management system (SCM). Addressing business leaders during a KZN post budget breakfast hosted by Absa in Zimbali, Rodgers said the current procurement system has eroded the trust in the government as it created opportunities for officials to manipulate tender processes. The E-procurement tool takes away the human element out of the procurement — which historically has always been a problem.

“It’s a fair and transparent system which allows the government to procure goods and services at fair and reasonable prices,” he said. The other flaw in the current manual procurement system was that it allowed departments to procure goods and services even when they do not have the funds to pay for the items, resulting in the accumulation of accruals [invoices that get carried over to the next financial year]. The failure to pay service providers on time [within 30 days] Rodgers said, has resulted in businesses losing confidence in the provincial government.

The launch of the E-procurement system, coupled by the measures announced in Rodgers’ budget tabled at the KZN Legislature on Tuesday, was part of the KZN Treasury’s drive to restore fiscal discipline and win back the confidence of business. Other measures contained in Rodgers’s R168,2 billion budget included the beefing up of the provincial government’s revenue generation capacity. At the moment, the provincial government’s income is largely from the equitable share (funds which the province receives from the national government) with only about four percent being from the provincial government’s own revenue generation streams, such as motor vehicle licensing fees and liquor licensing fees. To generate more revenue, Rodgers told the captains of industry that the provincial government would be pushing for the introduction of an online gambling tax.