Siphakeme .Mnindwa
Leonard Ncube, leonard.ncube@chronicle.co.zw
ZIMBABWE has been elected to lead the African Public Procurement Network (APPN), a continental association uniting public procurement entities across Africa. This recognition highlights Zimbabwe’s international stature as a leader in various fields. APPN encompasses procurement bodies from nearly all African countries, with only a few remaining to ratify certain requirements.
APPN was created in 2018 in Lomé, Togo, where it is headquartered. Its main objective is to promote development and regional integration through active cooperation between members with a view to improving public procurement. To achieve this goal, the network has become a regular and sustainable learning and networking platform for its members.
Zimbabwe will chair the association for the next year, and the country will be represented by the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Praz). The confirmation was made in Rwanda last week when Zimbabwe won unopposed, taking over from Rwanda.
The development is proof that Praz is a pacesetter in Africa in terms of public procurement benchmarking and speaks to good corporate governance and corruption-free procurement as championed by the state entity.
In his acceptance speech, Praz chief executive Mr Clever Ruswa said the presidency comes at an opportune time when the country has launched the Public Procurement Training Academy, which will make Zimbabwe a leader and central to public procurement on the continent.
“On behalf of the Government of Zimbabwe, I am happy to assume the presidency of the African Public Procurement Network and the chairmanship. This is a great honour for our country, and we are going to make sure that the objectives of the African Public Procurement Network are taken on board, particularly in areas such as benchmarking and best practices across the board, and standardisation of processes.
“Also, now that we have established the Public Procurement Training Academy, we will make sure that we address some of our colleagues’ concerns, the gaps they have seen in the market, and extend some activities to their respective jurisdictions. We have a lot of work ahead of us, but we are happy as a nation that we will also put our hands on the deck as we journey towards the African Union Agenda 2063 and the objectives of the African Continental Free Trade Area, where we will harmonise some of our laws and ensure that Environmental Sustainable Governance issues are taken on board and support our SMEs,” he said.
The Southern Africa Public Procurement Training Academy will be launched next year.
Praz has taken the lead in areas such as the Methodology for Assessing Procurement Systems, Monitoring and Evaluation Framework, Capacity Building, and Affirmative and Sustainable Procurement, among others.
The APPN aims to promote, among other things, horizontal technical co-operation, exchanges of training and experiences between its members, strengthening the capacities of institutions responsible for public procurement in African countries, creating partnerships between different public procurement players, and encouraging the use of country systems by donors.
It also seeks to help mobilise members to promote the sharing of information and the exchange of experiences with a view to strengthening the harmonisation of processes and the convergence of policies, as well as launching innovative programmes aimed at promoting the strengthening and improvement of public procurement systems and preventing corruption and any other threats to development. — @ncubeleon
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