MTBPS: UPCOMING LEGISLATIVE REFORMS

MTBPS: UPCOMING LEGISLATIVE REFORMS

• 30 October 2024
• National Treasury
• SA Legal Academy

This report focuses on legislative and policy-related commitments featured in Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) speech. This is bearing in mind extensive media coverage of other aspects of the speech and related documents.

Bills and other documents tabled with the MTBPS are the focus of a separate report.

With that in mind, the Minister’s speech included references to work already under way on:

• developing regulations to give practical effect to the Public Procurement Act, 2024
• amending the regulations on public-private partnerships, which fall under the Public Finance Management Act, 1999, and the Local Government: Municipal Finance Management Act, 2003, and
• amendments to the Acts themselves.

Regarding regulations under the Public Procurement Act, National Treasury:

• is ‘consulting widely’ as part of the drafting process
• ‘will consider … findings and recommendations’ from an ‘assessment of South Africa’s procurement system’, which was apparently informed by ‘international standard(s) and universal tool(s)’, and
• expects to publish the regulations ‘in 2025’.

It is not clear from the Minister’s speech if these regulations will be released in draft form for public comment. However, the final version will apparently be subjected to ‘parliamentary scrutiny’ before being promulgated. Meanwhile, a report on the assessment of South Africa’s public procurement system is expected to be released in November 2024.

In anticipation of operationalising the Act and its regulations, National Treasury is also ‘intensifying … efforts to modernise, digitise and make .. (the) procurement system transparent and in line with international standards’.

Turning to public-private partnerships (PPPs), reforms intended to create conditions to ‘attract greater private sector participation’ in the state’s infrastructure development include ‘amending the PPP regulations’ to ‘simplify’ related requirements. In that context, the Minister noted the importance of ‘mobilising significant private sector financing and technical expertise to augment … limited public sector capacity and capability’.

To that end:

• an ‘amended Treasury Regulation 16’ (focusing on PPPs) is expected to be published ‘before the end of November for implementation in 2025/26’, while
• amendments to the 2005 Local Government: Municipal PPP Regulations ‘will be finalised by June next year’.

The Minister also referred to the process of ‘modernising public financial management’ – regarding which draft amendments to the Public Finance Management Act and the Local Government: Municipal Finance Management Act are expected to be released ‘next year’. No further details were provided.

• MTBPS speech
• Public Procurement Act
• Treasury Regulation 16 on PPPs (to be amended)
• Local Government: Municipal PPP Regulations (referred to in the speech as ‘Regulation 309’)

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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