‘ETHICAL’ PUBLIC PROCUREMENT AN ‘UNASSAILABLE PRIORITY’ – FINANCE MINISTER

‘ETHICAL’ PUBLIC PROCUREMENT AN ‘UNASSAILABLE PRIORITY’ – FINANCE MINISTER

• 20 September 2023
• Public Service
• SA Legal Academy

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has described ‘the ethical sourcing of goods and services through public procurement’ as ‘an unassailable priority’ in responding to the ‘difficult fiscal situation’ in which South Africa now finds itself.

The Minister attributed this situation to:

• the materialisation of ‘short-term risks to the local and global economy … predicted in the February Budget’
• ‘much lower-than-expected tax revenue’, and
• dwindling opportunities ‘to borrow more and at affordable rates’.

According to Godongwana, it has been made ‘even more challenging’ by:

• ‘continued loadshedding’
• ‘the poor performance of our logistics sectors’, and
• the lasting damage done by state capture to our institutions’.

Addressing National Treasury’s third public finance management conference in Johannesburg on 20 September 2023, the Minister also drew attention to the ‘pivotal role’ of ‘rigorous and independent audit practices’ in ‘unearthing corruption and financial mismanagement’ – and ‘providing invaluable insights and recommendations for the judicious utilisation of public funds’.

• speech
• 2023 Budget review summary
• statement of actual revenue, expenditure and borrowing as at 31 July 2023

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

0 COMMENTS

LEAVE A COMMENT