Assessing good governance in procurement at the Lejweleputswa District Municipality

[摘要] The thesis evaluates the extent to which good governance has influenced theprocurement process at the Lejweleputswa District Municipality. Under goodgovernance, the manner in which goods are procured or disposed of, is supposed to beunproblematic and conducted with the highest integrity, taking into account both thecosts involved in the process and the benefits of the delivery of the services. Goodgovernance should act as a 'decontaminator or antiseptic in a germ infested area(Cloete 2006:6–19). To extend the analogy further, this process of disinfecting thewound definitely requires some form of expertise and knowledge, as well as theparticipation of different role players, such as doctors and nurses; in addition, certainutensils to clean and cover the wound would be needed.In the same way, the procurement process needs experts to handle and enforce correctprocedure. The values of good governance alone are meaningless unless there arepeople who are willing and have the capacity to manage the required processes andprocedures. In South Africa, a new procurement process was adopted in the publicsector in 1994. To date it has been interpreted and implemented in favour ofhistorically disadvantaged individuals, like black people, women and disabled peoplethrough a legislative framework, the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act,2000 (RSA, Act 5 of 2000) and the Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment Act,2003 (RSA, Act 53 of 2003).It is crucial to point out, however, that the definitions given by these laws about blackpeople differ or contradict each other. Challenges like this have turned the procurementprocess upside down. In an effort to attain uniformity in the procurement process in thelocal sphere of government, both National and Provincial Treasury Departments haveinstituted legislation and guidelines to steer the process. Despite all these efforts,municipalities are still associated with allegations of corruption and nepotism whenawarding tenders to service providers.The Lejweleputswa District Municipality has not been spared from such accusations,as shown by the spate of riots that occurred in the Free State (Mail and Guardian2007:6–12). This research has therefore been undertaken with the general objective ofdetermining whether the values of good governance have managed to sustain a goodprocurement process in the municipality or whether the values are being ignored leading to procurement processes which do not fulfil the aims of the legislation andguidelines and remain open to allegations of corruption and maladministration. Thespecific objectives for the research were to investigate good governance inprocurement in the municipality context and to make recommendations, if appropriate,on how to promote good governance in municipal procurement.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University