South Africa’s procurement measures to be undertaken during the just-declared national state of disaster on the country’s energy crisis will not be abused by state officials, Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has said.
Dlamini-Zuma said this on Friday when she joined other officials involved in the procurement processes to assist power utility Eskom during the emergency to contain the severe loadshedding the country is facing.
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana announced last week that he had granted Eskom US$11.1 billion in debt relief following President Cyril Ramaphosa’s declaration of the state of national disaster to deal with the energy crisis weeks earlier.
The debt relief is at the centre of solving the energy crisis, and Dlamini-Zuma said the government was keen to let her compatriots know that there would be no abuse of the procurement process as had happened during the Covid-19 emergency funds.
“The auditor-general will do real-time auditing,” Dlamini-Zuma said.
She added: “But also, we said that the accounting officers who will use the emergency procurement according to these regulations, will have to appear in parliament every month, so that we don’t have anyone abusing the regulations.”
In addition, the decision-making process has been reduced from 30 to14 days and ministry accounting officers would be required to explain to parliament every month on what they would have procured and the purpose of such procurements.
“Going to parliament every month is going to be helpful because people will know that they will have to account to the nation,” Dlamini Zuma said.
The minister came under fired over the past two years over her handling of the Covid-19 pandemic regulations where billions of Rands were abused by senior government officials who manipulated procurement procedures.
The latest regulations are aimed at minimising the impact of loadshedding on the economy, health, agriculture, security, education, water services and life-saving infrastructure, among others, she said.
NM/jn/APA