HARARE: Government has applied for $2 million from the World Bank for the implementation of technical assistance for the modernisation of Zimbabwe’s public procurement project.
The project is being financed under the Zimbabwe Re-Engagement Fund which is a multi-donor trust fund.
In a statement, the Office of the President and Cabinet’s public sector modernisation and performance management department said the proposed project would enhance institutional and legislative reforms of public procurement and improve government capacity for e-procurement adoption in order to enhance transparency and efficiency in government procurement.
“The government of Zimbabwe has applied for financing from the World Bank, an amount of $2 million equivalent, towards the cost of implementing the project on technical assistance for the modernisation of Zimbabwe public procurement, and it intends to apply part of the proceeds to payments for goods, works, related services and consulting services to be procured under the project,” it said.
The project will include reforming and modernising the State Procurement Board (SPB) into a new non-executive procurement authority with a mandate of setting standards and guidelines as well as monitoring and evaluating compliance.
“The thrust allows for the decentralisation of procurement of various goods and services to procurement units that will be established in ministries’ departments and agencies (MDAs) throughout the public sector,” it said.Government said the objective was consistent with the development goals of the current economic blueprint, Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (ZimAsset). Zim Asset runs from 2013 to 2018.
In line with the Zimbabwe Public Modernisation project, the legislative and institutional reform and capacity building component will focus on support to legislative and institutional reforms to public procurement.
This is in line with government’s roadmap for legislative and institutional reform of government procurement.
It said the project would improve readiness for e-procurement component and support enhancement of government’s readiness for the adoption of e-procurement. This will include the development and adoption of a strategy and roadmap for implementation of e-procurement in Zimbabwe.
The modernisation of public procurement comes as the Office of the President and Cabinet seeks to engage a procurement specialist as it moves to improve the public procurement programme.
