ConCourt declares govt law aimed at overhauling tender, procurement system unconstitutional - EWN

The government’s new law aimed at overhauling its tender and procurement system has been declared invalid and unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court.

On Thursday, the court delivered another scathing blow to Parliament’s insufficient public participation processes after a new chapter was introduced between drafts of the Public Procurement Bill without being subjected to proper consultation. Although the law has not yet come into effect, the process was underway to introduce it in phases, with draft procurement regulations published in April. Parliament’s processes in respect of the act, signed into law by President Cyril Ramaphosa last year, were challenged by the Western Cape government and the amaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism. Chapter four of the Public Procurement Act deals with how the state uses public procurement to advance socioeconomic transformation in line with Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) laws. But the applicants challenged the lack of public participation in this chapter. Acting Judge Lister Nuku agreed that Parliament had failed to subject the additional chapter to public participation meaningfully and had deferred much of its responsibility to the National Treasury, which only responded to a handful of the more than 100 submissions received.