a[data-mtli~="mtli_filesize968kB"]:after {content:" (968 kB)"}a[data-mtli~="mtli_filesize2MB"]:after {content:" (2 MB)"}lang="en-GB"> CW research reveals opacity, regulation breaches on govt tender portals - Corruption Watch
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CW research reveals opacity, regulation breaches on govt tender portals

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Corruption Watch, in partnership with Transparency International, is working on a project called Open Contracting for Health (OC4H), which aims to advocate for greater transparency in health procurement processes.

The project developed from our engagements with other civil society organisations, when we became aware of a common frustration – efforts to monitor the implementation of tenders is undermined by the lack of access to information, while requests made under the Promotion of Access to Information Act are routinely met with the lawful ground of refusal that the information is commercially and legally sensitive.

Nobody needs to be reminded of the scandalous procurement abuse during the early days of the response to Covid-19. But as distressing as that was. It was just one of a long string of ongoing procurement scandals in all three levels of government, and the reason that the culprits continue to make off with their ill-gotten gains is partly because there was, and still is, a diminished capacity for third-party monitoring because of incompetence, inefficiency, opacity, and sheer disregard for Treasury regulations.

We therefore undertook legal research to determine, among others, exactly which information has to be published, ways to access it, and what is actually considered to be legally and commercially sensitive. This data would enable us to make recommendations on how the publication of such information can be improved.

The research was conducted on our behalf by Open Cities Lab. The work involved:

The three portals selected for these deep dives were the eTenders publication portal, the North West Department of Health website (DoH) and the Gauteng Provincial Government tender information portal.

Download our policy document and full report.

Significant lack of quality data

Open Cities Lab notes in its research report that the exercise of reviewing and scraping the three procurement portals, developing a data catalogue, and assessing procurement indicators unearthed the lack of quality, complete data available on public health-related procurement portals in South Africa.

The review found that out of 69 potential indicators for eTenders, only seven could be calculated using the data catalogue developed, and out of 67 potential indicators for provincial portals, only three could be calculated per portal. The specific challenges leading to the inability to calculate indicators are categorised as data quality, transparency, and efficiency, and are reflective of a fairly immature procurement data management system that fails to publish basic information requirements.

Data quality across all three portals was poor, requiring significant effort to develop the data catalogue and preventing accurate indicator analysis.  The following data quality issues were most common:

Besides these issues, the research uncovered significant inconsistency of data across the provincial portals and eTenders. It is legally required by National Treasury Instruction 1, 3 and 4 (2015/16) to publish provincial bids and awards on eTenders – however, very few provincially published tenders are also being published on eTenders and there are some tenders listed on eTenders that aren’t listed on the provincial portals.

Another major challenge related to the lack of information published. Without transparency, it is almost impossible to analyse factors such value for money. Again, Open Cities notes, the lack of transparency is often illegal in terms of the minimum standards set in National Treasury instructions 1, 3 and 4 of 2015/16.

Examples of inefficiency within the procuring process include:

A major consequence of the above challenges is that corruption via these digital platforms cannot be adequately monitored – therefore the chances of corruption occurring are increased. The following recommendations aim to address these challenges and improve monitoring.

Recommendations

The following recommendations should be read together with the individual portal recommendations in previous sections.

Provincial portals

It is important to note that provincial portals are publishing significantly less information than eTenders (particularly in HTML), the data quality and consistency is poor, and there seems to be confusion and inconsistency regarding what is published on eTenders and what is published on the provincial portal. This is a breach in legislation. There are two scenarios that should be explored by provinces:

National portal

While there are notable shortcomings with eTenders, it is still the most comprehensive and effective procurement portal of the portals considered in the rapid assessment as part of this study. This proves that there is a place for a national portal such as eTenders within the procurement ecosystem. Two scenarios could be considered:

Download our policy document and full report.

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