×
NewsDay

AMH is an independent media house free from political ties or outside influence. We have four newspapers: The Zimbabwe Independent, a business weekly published every Friday, The Standard, a weekly published every Sunday, and Southern and NewsDay, our daily newspapers. Each has an online edition.

OPC ‘tutors’ Zacc, Prosecutor-General Office on procurement crimes

Business
The Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) will hold a two-day workshop with members of the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) and the Prosecutor-General to capacitate them on how they can investigate procurement-related crimes.

The Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) will hold a two-day workshop with members of the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) and the Prosecutor-General to capacitate them on how they can investigate procurement-related crimes.

BY BUSINESS REPORTER

The workshop, which begins today at a hotel in the capital, comes after the OPC held similar ones with legislators and journalists to apprise them on reforms currently underway meant to plug loopholes in procurement by government departments, parastatals, State-owned enterprises and local authorities.

“The focus of the training is to capacitate them to effectively investigate procurement-related crimes. The World Bank shall cover issues of integrity and risk management in public procurement that shall be delivered by an expert from Washington, (the United States capital),” the OPC said in a statement.

There have been increased efforts to plug the loopholes in procurements.

This will result in legislative review in the procurement legislation and the embracing of e-procurement in line with the e-government agenda.

Legislative review will result in the decentralisation of purchasing to procurement management units in government departments, parastatals, State-owned enterprises and local authorities.

The State Procurement Board will be turned into an authority responsible for setting standards and guidelines, as well as performing a monitoring and evaluation role over procurement.

Procurement units and personnel will be licensed to ensure accountability stems abuse of processes.

Zimbabwe has witnessed a number of cases where government departments, ministries and local authorities flout tender rules resulting in high costs of obtaining goods or services.

The wheels have been moving slowly in public procurement reforms despite the existence of a country procurement assessment report.

The report culminated from an integrated fiduciary assessment project undertaken by government in 2010, with the support from the World Bank.