Lawson Naidoo

This study was prompted by the fact that no research study focused on the application of the Open Contracting principle of disclosure in South African public procurement. The main issue examined in this study pertained to the application of the disclosure principle of Open Contracting in the South African public procurement system. The study population included members of the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply Chain (CIPS) employed in the South African public service. This research study used applied, exploratory and non-experimental research in conjunction with descriptive and inferential statistics. The measuring instrument designed for this study included an online survey containing a structured, close-ended questionnaire that measured the disclosure aspect covered in an in-depth literature study. With regard to the results obtained from this study, it is evident that the respondents indicated that there are opportunities to adopt the disclosure principle within South African public procurement. This study provides definite guidelines to procurement practitioners and policy makers concerning the application of proactively disclosing information at the different stages of government procurement. Disclosure in public procurement is rapidly changing and the South African public sector should keep abreast of such changes (e.g., the use of Open Contracting) to ensure that its procurement system is suitably equipped to deliver better deals, minimize fraud and corruption, ensure high quality of performance and a fairer business environment.

The main purpose of the study was to establish the conformity of South African legislation and policies to the global principles of Open Contracting. The specific objective of the study was to establish whether South African legislation supports the application of Open Contracting in public sector procurement. The study employed a descriptive survey research design. Primary data was collected using questionnaires targeting members of the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply Chain (CIPS) employed in the South African public service. A total of 300 (100%) completed questionnaires were returned. Fifty-two (52) of the targeted 300 respondents were excluded from the study. They were found not to be “public procurement champions”. This would imply that a final total sample size of 248 was employed in this study, thus a realization of 82.7%. The study findings revealed that although government institutions have policy statements for Open Contracting, the principles are not fully implemented. The study recommends that the National Treasury put forward a single coherent, comprehensive and overarching procurement law to standardize and clarify the procurement process to be followed by procuring entities in South Africa. Particularly the study recommends the development of a policy framework for the implementation of Open Contracting in the South African public sector procurement system.