South Africa is a developing country where government expenditure represents a great proportion of the GNP. To effective make use of public money it is important to have a well defined procurement rules and regulations. These can help to promote fairness, transparency and accountability in the government system. Procurement rules and regulations encourage domestic and foreign investment; motivate competition; and reduce corruption.
Rules and regulations alone are not enough to enable a procurement system to work effectively. We need also officers of high level of integrity; competent institutions to instruct public bodies and to monitor compliance of the rules and regulations; capacity building to enhance skills and knowledge of all the procurement practitioners; seminars and workshop to raise the awareness of the community of bidders and suppliers of the new rules and regulations; commitment of top management and politicians.
It is also high time to recognize the importance of the procurement function and motivate them to continue to add value by for example rewarding them through an award ceremony at the end of year or by providing a decent salary to procurement officials.