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12 October 2011 | Angeline Albert
South Africa is gearing up to give its local
suppliers a larger slice of the procurement pie with preferential public
purchasing rules that come into effect on 7 December.
The regulations will empower the country‘s Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to designate specific
industries as of critical or strategic importance. This would then be linked to
tenders that state only locally manufactured products/product parts will be
considered.
DTI minister Rob Davies said the designation of
products/product parts/lines is part of government plans to use procurement to
increase domestic production and employment.
The minister
told SM that the incoming regulations
would apply to raft of critical industries starting with infrastructure
projects, including electricity transmission lines and rail contracts.
Davies
said: “We have a broad target of increasing the amount of suppliers of locally made
goods from the current 30 per cent to 40 per cent. This is out of a total
infrastructure spend of more than R800 billion (US$101.8 billion) over the next five
years.
He
added: “We say to foreign companies: ‘You come here and manufacture and you
will be eligible for public sector contracts. You come here and bring your
goods by boat, you won’t.’”
At
Johannesburg’s International Motor Show this week, Davies said: “We are looking
at designating buses for local
procurement wherein we would seek for government and state agencies to buy
locally-manufactured buses.”
The DTI is taking the procurement lead as part of the government’s Broad-Based
Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) plan, a policy that also now covers other
marginalised groups including women and the young. The Preferential Procurement Regulations will also see potential suppliers ranked on a BBBEE scorecard. Purchasers will
have to consider more than whether the supplier has black ownership with
vendors measured across a range of criteria, including their employment and
procurement policies.
