‘Public suppliers’ registration to weed out bad apples’

THE Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (PRAZ) has opened registration for public sector suppliers and has warned that those who do not register risk losing potential business.

The registration of suppliers is mandatory and goes a long way in enhancing transparency and accountability as well as dealing with misbehaviour by some players on procurement matters, says the authority.

In an interview PRAZ chief executive officer, Mr Clever Ruswa, said businesses keen to supply public sectors should register as required by law.

“Procurement registration is mandatory and those who wish to supply the public sectors should register with the authority so that we avoid issues of common directorship whereby one can register several companies in different names yet belongs to an individual or same individuals,” he said.

“Therefore, when participating in public procurement they may throw in different names and we think they are competing with different people yet it’s one or same individuals.

“Also, some fail to deliver after agreeing with the customer and when we want to take them to the court of law then it becomes easy to do that when dealing with registered entities.”

Earlier, PRAZ had issued a public notice inviting registration for procurement, which it said was mainly targeting new and old suppliers.

“This notice is a call for registration for suppliers to the public sector in terms of Section 6 of the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Act as read with Section 4 of Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets (PPDPA) Regulation S.I.5 of 2018 as amended.

“The call is targeted at new suppliers of goods, works and services to the public sector as well as current suppliers published in the Government Gazettes of 2021 who wish to renew their registration for 2022,” said PRAZ.

The authority has advised applicants to bring proof of payment of a non-refundable registration processing fee per category of $16 000 or US$120 for new and renewal applicants for local companies and US$850 country of registration equivalent for foreign companies in respect of annual registration.

Mr Ruswa said due to different sizes of business entities, PRAZ came up with a new idea, which commenced this financial year of 2022 whereby businesses will be allowed to register on quarterly basis to accommodate everyone.

“Zimbabwean bidders are advised that an option to register or renew registration on a quarterly basis has been introduced with a non-refundable processing fee of $4 000 or US$30 for new or renewal applicants for local companies,” he said.

“Successful applicants shall be published in the Government Gazette quarterly through general notice in terms of the procurement regulations and monthly on PRAZ website.

“In the meantime, pending the publication of the names in the Government Gazette, procuring entities will be accepting the certificates issued by PRAZ as proof of registration,” said Mr Ruswa.

PRAZ was created through an Act of Parliament with a mandate of supervising public procurement proceedings to ensure transparency, fairness, honesty, cost-effectiveness and fair competition as required by Section 315 of the Zimbabwean Constitution. — The Chronicle