MoU Launched: Competition Authority, DCEC and PPADB

The Competition Authority (CA), the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) and the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Board (PPADB), officially launched a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in which they will cooperate against bid rigging and collusive tendering on August 13th.

The Tripartite MoU which was signed on November 23^rd 2011, was launched this morning at a local hotel under the theme “United Against Bid Rigging and Corruption”. Under the MoU, the three organisations will cooperate and assist each other through information sharing to facilitate investigations, collaborate on research and analysis, as well as joint training and advocacy programmes. The launch was held to sensitise the public on the commitment made by the CA, DCEC and PPADB to jointly fight corruption, bid rigging and collusion in line with their mandates.

Speaking at the launch, the Chief Executive Officer of the Competition Authority Mr Thula Kaira, said to deal with bid rigging there is need to go to the bottom and understand how it occurs. “Bid rigging is theft and white collar crime at its best”, he said.

Mr. Kaira said wealth creation is the source for the greater good of any society and this process has to be as transparent, accountable and fair as possible. “Government is the largest buyer of goods and services in any economy and thus fair access to Government business is vital to assist in welfare enhancement”, he said.

Mr. Kaira said the Competition Authority is committed to supporting its partners, the PPADB and the DCEC to ensure that the scourge of bid-rigging is curtailed. He said the CA’s enforcement and advocacy powers under Section 5 of the Competition Act cannot be applied effectively without the cooperation of specialised agencies such as the DCEC and the PPADB.

For her part, the Director of the DCEC Ms. Rose Seretse said her organisation alone cannot win the war against corruption and there is need to work together to bring corruption to minimum levels. She said despite good ratings by Transparency International, Botswana continues to register increasing incidences of corruption, the major problems being in procurement and tendering, land allocations, fraudulent acquisition of driving licenses as well as employment secured through corrupt means.

Ms Seretse said the DCEC continues to receive allegations of public officials colluding with companies by leaking inside information especially in relation to tenders.

“We are also experiencing an upsurge of reports where one person uses several companies to bid for a tender, this conduct undermines fair competition and service delivery, she said.

In her remarks, the Executive Chairperson of the PPADB, Ms. Bridget John, said public procurement plays a pivotal role in economic development, including job creation, wealth distribution, development of competitive entrepreneurship and overall governance in any country. “It is therefore not surprising that public procurement carries risks associated with corruption, fraud, bid rigging and collusion given that there are some in the industry who work very hard to undermine and unduly benefit from the public procurement system”, she said.

The MoU provides for a Joint Working Committee consisting of representatives of the CA, PPADB and the DCEC. The Committee’s role is to ensure that the MoU does not gather dust but gets implemented and its objectives realised.

The chairpersonship of the MOU will rotate on an annual basis among the three organisations so that in any particular year one organisation can be held accountable for driving its implementation. To this end, the Executive Chairperson of the PPADB has been nominated to oversee implementation of the MoU for the period August 2012 to July 2013.