NGO criticises Mozambique’s public procurement process

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NGO criticises Mozambique’s public procurement process

2:43 CAT | 24 May 2016

Mozambican non-governmental organization the Centre for Public Integrity (CIP) on Monday criticized the country’s public procurement process, saying that it allowed civil servants to award contracts to companies they themselves create.

“The procurement process has brought into existence a group of civil servants who are simultaneously entrepreneurs and create companies to act as intermediaries in the state procurement process, with their fees paid by the contracting entities”, the latest CIP report reads.

Giving examples from tender specifications published in the press, the CIP adds that “the procurement process has also established the payment of commissions for the award of public contracts whose values [of the commissions] are indexed to the final invoice of the financial proposals submitted by companies.”

Public procurement in Mozambique, the CIP concludes, “is dominated by such companies, which act as intermediaries, often in collusion with public officials in the contracting units”.

At stake is the lack of power and “the assent of the Procurement Supervision of Acquisitions Unit (UFSA), which has shown itself completely unable and incompetent to oversee public procurement tenders throughout the country”, the CIP complains.

The Minister of Economy and Finance, Adriano Maleiane, “should not proceed with remedial austerity measures, but take advantage of the deep financial crisis affecting the Mozambican state to conduct deep reforms,” the CIP argues, noting that public tenders represent more than half the turnover of small and medium enterprises in Mozambique.

Source: Lusa