The World Bank, which supported the procurement reform through a $2 million grant under the Zimbabwe Reconstruction Fund through a variety of actions, said the reforms would go a long way in bringing development to the country and trend-setters for broader governance reforms in the country and that it can be a model to follow by other countries in the region and elsewhere.
Zimbabwe is excelling in reforming its public procurement
system at the same time facing multi-faceted challenges marked by a series of
political, economic, and financial tremors.
“The adoption of the
new procurement legal framework and the establishment of the Procurement
Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (PRAZ), with a board of directors representing
all regions in the country, with a majority of women representation, clearly
demonstrate the cultural changes in institutional arrangements in Zimbabwe’s
public sector,” said the World Bank.
The PRAZ board which substituted the State Procurement Board
(SPB) was established to bring efficiency, with procurement reverting to
accounting officers in their entities, in line with best practices the world
over.
Specific accomplishments in updating the public procurement
system in Zimbabwe include the enactment of the new Public Procurement Act, the
acceptance of latest public procurement regulations that define the legal,
institutional, and procedural framework, and the establishment of PRAZ and its
board.
“It’s in this setting that the Government of Zimbabwe has
taken significant stages to reform its public procurement system through a
comprehensive and multi-faceted reform program that should ultimately catalyze
further development,” said the World Bank.
The old system, the World Bank added, was exposed to
irregular payments and governance issues in connection with the awarding of
public contracts, favoritism of Government officials and diverting of public
funds for other purposes.
