Demand the Transparency of ALL Tender Contracts Awarded in the City of Johannesburg
The Issue
12 April 2023
For the Attention of the following office bearers of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality:
The Speaker of the Council,
The Mayor,
The Chairpersons,
The Members of the Mayoral Committees,
The Members of Standing Committees,
The Chair of Chairs,
The CEO’s, CFO’s and Directors of Departments of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality, its agencies and subsidiaries
RE: THE ASRI FUTURE LEADERS PROGRAMME’S PROPOSED BYLAW FOR MORE STRINGENT OVERSIGHT, TRANSPARENCY, AND ACCOUNTABILITY OF TENDER PROCESSES IN THE CITY OF JOHANNESBURG
Dear Sirs and Madams,
We the undersigned signatories of this petition deeply believe that public procurement corruption in the City of Johannesburg steals from the poorest and most vulnerable citizens of our city, robbing them of much needed services, such as access to public clinics, visible metro policing, running water, roads and traffic control, reliably electricity supply, community development centers, libraries, public parks and so on, the vast majority of whom cannot afford access to private healthcare, private security, private electricity production, and private green spaces.
Additional to public services reducing the inequality amongst citizens of the city, accountable, transparent, effective municipal governance attracts public, private and business investment into the city, creating jobs, generating more rates revenues for the city, and further reduces this inequality amongst citizens.
To reduce and curtail public procurement corruption, we the undersigned signatories, support the 2023 Cohort of the ASRI Future Leaders Programme, to advocate for these proposed tender reforms in the City of Johannesburg, and hereby petition you as public representatives to ensure that these reforms are immediately tabled in Council, opened for public inputs, and adopted by the City of Johannesburg.
The Tender Reform By-Law:
The public procurement process accounts for a significant sum of public resources, and it is thus imperative that this process is conducted in a transparent, fair, and effective manner that ensures accountability to the public. This draft a by-law aims to drastically limit potential avenues through which corruption may occur in the public procurement process in the City of Johannesburg by strengthening the structures responsible for oversight in the procurement process. In addition to this, this proposed by-law makes the procurement process transparent by broadening the scope of public scrutiny over the process through the monthly publication of documents and data.
The following are areas of focus in the by-law:
i. Strengthening oversight with clear responsibilities and deadlines :
The by-law elaborates the duties of the various standing committees that provide oversight of the various MMC’s, the municipal budgets that they oversee, along with the budgets of the municipal agencies and subsidiaries that fall within their responsibility. The novel aim of this by-law is to legislate that all Members of the Mayoral Committees (MMCs) will be required by this by-law to collect and report all relevant documentation and tender information, to the members of the standing committees within the legislature every 30 days for public scrutiny.
This legislation would, by municipal law, place MMCs and tender processes within their departments under more regular and effective scrutiny of the standing committees, bolstering internal oversight over the public procurement process. The relevant documentation required to be reported monthly includes (but is not limited to): the winning bidder’s registration documents, shareholder certificates, B-BBEE certificates, all invoices and quotations related to the tender, declarations statements of interest/relationships between bidders and City employees, the names of company’s and value of all bids received.
ii. Transparency and Inclusion of Public Oversight:
The Standing Committees will be required to publish all the relevant documentation of the winning bidder (mentioned above) for public access and scrutiny on the City’s website (joburg.org.za). This will take place in no longer than 21 days of the decision by the relevant tender committee to award a contract to a bidder being made. No contracts will be legally finalised until a 30-day period of public scrutiny has passed.
This affords the public access to all information related to the public procurement process, and empowers the public to investigate and object to any irregularities in the process, while also encourages participatory democracy, whereby citizens are actively engaged and involved in the oversight of public procurement.
Supporting this by-law:
No South African is untouched by the effects of corruption. The reach of corrupt actors and processes extends from high offices of government, down to interactions between civil servants and the public. These effects are felt in the City of Johannesburg, where continued corruption in the public procurement process negatively affects the lives of its residents, by robbing us of much needed public services that serve to reduce inequality in our City by providing public funded healthcare, visible policing, running water, reliable electricity supply, libraries, community development centers, green spaces and so on.
Therefore, we as signatories of this petition, demand accountability and transparency in the public procurement process in the City of Johannesburg, in order to empower ourselves and rid this city of the corruption that steals from us daily.
We look forward to, within 30 days of your receipt of this petition, receiving correspondence from your offices, that includes a timeline for when this Bylaw will be tabled, opened for public consultations, and adopted by the Council of the City of Johannesburg.
About ASRI:
ASRI is a pluralist domestic public policy institute that advocates for laws, policies and programmes, inspired by constitutional values, at a national, provincial and municipal level to achieve a just and prosperous society. ASRI is an active member of the Defend Our Democracy Coalition.
The ASRI Future Leaders Program, is an intensive, full-time, graduate training programme, that develops young professionals for careers in the Civil Society, Media, Academia, and Civil service sectors, and therefore recruits individuals who are socially and politically active in their communities.
The ASRI Future Leaders Programme aims to effect progressive change in South African society through a variety of projects and initiatives. One such initiative is this reform of legislation that will address the systemic corruption and absence of oversight, transparency and accountability with tender processes in the City of Johannesburg.
1,050
The Issue
12 April 2023
For the Attention of the following office bearers of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality:
The Speaker of the Council,
The Mayor,
The Chairpersons,
The Members of the Mayoral Committees,
The Members of Standing Committees,
The Chair of Chairs,
The CEO’s, CFO’s and Directors of Departments of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality, its agencies and subsidiaries
RE: THE ASRI FUTURE LEADERS PROGRAMME’S PROPOSED BYLAW FOR MORE STRINGENT OVERSIGHT, TRANSPARENCY, AND ACCOUNTABILITY OF TENDER PROCESSES IN THE CITY OF JOHANNESBURG
Dear Sirs and Madams,
We the undersigned signatories of this petition deeply believe that public procurement corruption in the City of Johannesburg steals from the poorest and most vulnerable citizens of our city, robbing them of much needed services, such as access to public clinics, visible metro policing, running water, roads and traffic control, reliably electricity supply, community development centers, libraries, public parks and so on, the vast majority of whom cannot afford access to private healthcare, private security, private electricity production, and private green spaces.
Additional to public services reducing the inequality amongst citizens of the city, accountable, transparent, effective municipal governance attracts public, private and business investment into the city, creating jobs, generating more rates revenues for the city, and further reduces this inequality amongst citizens.
To reduce and curtail public procurement corruption, we the undersigned signatories, support the 2023 Cohort of the ASRI Future Leaders Programme, to advocate for these proposed tender reforms in the City of Johannesburg, and hereby petition you as public representatives to ensure that these reforms are immediately tabled in Council, opened for public inputs, and adopted by the City of Johannesburg.
The Tender Reform By-Law:
The public procurement process accounts for a significant sum of public resources, and it is thus imperative that this process is conducted in a transparent, fair, and effective manner that ensures accountability to the public. This draft a by-law aims to drastically limit potential avenues through which corruption may occur in the public procurement process in the City of Johannesburg by strengthening the structures responsible for oversight in the procurement process. In addition to this, this proposed by-law makes the procurement process transparent by broadening the scope of public scrutiny over the process through the monthly publication of documents and data.
The following are areas of focus in the by-law:
i. Strengthening oversight with clear responsibilities and deadlines :
The by-law elaborates the duties of the various standing committees that provide oversight of the various MMC’s, the municipal budgets that they oversee, along with the budgets of the municipal agencies and subsidiaries that fall within their responsibility. The novel aim of this by-law is to legislate that all Members of the Mayoral Committees (MMCs) will be required by this by-law to collect and report all relevant documentation and tender information, to the members of the standing committees within the legislature every 30 days for public scrutiny.
This legislation would, by municipal law, place MMCs and tender processes within their departments under more regular and effective scrutiny of the standing committees, bolstering internal oversight over the public procurement process. The relevant documentation required to be reported monthly includes (but is not limited to): the winning bidder’s registration documents, shareholder certificates, B-BBEE certificates, all invoices and quotations related to the tender, declarations statements of interest/relationships between bidders and City employees, the names of company’s and value of all bids received.
ii. Transparency and Inclusion of Public Oversight:
The Standing Committees will be required to publish all the relevant documentation of the winning bidder (mentioned above) for public access and scrutiny on the City’s website (joburg.org.za). This will take place in no longer than 21 days of the decision by the relevant tender committee to award a contract to a bidder being made. No contracts will be legally finalised until a 30-day period of public scrutiny has passed.
This affords the public access to all information related to the public procurement process, and empowers the public to investigate and object to any irregularities in the process, while also encourages participatory democracy, whereby citizens are actively engaged and involved in the oversight of public procurement.
Supporting this by-law:
No South African is untouched by the effects of corruption. The reach of corrupt actors and processes extends from high offices of government, down to interactions between civil servants and the public. These effects are felt in the City of Johannesburg, where continued corruption in the public procurement process negatively affects the lives of its residents, by robbing us of much needed public services that serve to reduce inequality in our City by providing public funded healthcare, visible policing, running water, reliable electricity supply, libraries, community development centers, green spaces and so on.
Therefore, we as signatories of this petition, demand accountability and transparency in the public procurement process in the City of Johannesburg, in order to empower ourselves and rid this city of the corruption that steals from us daily.
We look forward to, within 30 days of your receipt of this petition, receiving correspondence from your offices, that includes a timeline for when this Bylaw will be tabled, opened for public consultations, and adopted by the Council of the City of Johannesburg.
About ASRI:
ASRI is a pluralist domestic public policy institute that advocates for laws, policies and programmes, inspired by constitutional values, at a national, provincial and municipal level to achieve a just and prosperous society. ASRI is an active member of the Defend Our Democracy Coalition.
The ASRI Future Leaders Program, is an intensive, full-time, graduate training programme, that develops young professionals for careers in the Civil Society, Media, Academia, and Civil service sectors, and therefore recruits individuals who are socially and politically active in their communities.
The ASRI Future Leaders Programme aims to effect progressive change in South African society through a variety of projects and initiatives. One such initiative is this reform of legislation that will address the systemic corruption and absence of oversight, transparency and accountability with tender processes in the City of Johannesburg.
The Decision Makers
Petition Updates
Share this petition
Petition created on 3 April 2023