Wednesday August 10, 2022.The Zambia Public Procurement Authority (ZPPA) wishes to respond to the Phoenix FM news coverage broadcasted at 18:00 hours on Friday, 5th August, 2022, under the headline “The N urges President Hakainde Hichilema to consider directing ZPPA to stop advertising public projects that can be easily done by local contractors to allow them to have more jobs.

 

ZPPA is concerned with the sentiments expressed in the news story and would like to advise that:

 

Contrary to the claims alleged by the National Association for Medium and Small-Scale Contractors, ZPPA does not advertise tenders on behalf of procuring entities. Procuring entities are responsible for the management of their procurements. Tenders are advertised by procuring entities in order to enhance competition, transparency, fairness and value for money in procurement processes. In addition, the requirement for advertising tenders is in accordance with the provisions of the Public Procurement Act, No.8 of 2020 and Public Procurement Regulations, 2022.

Further, it is within the discretion of a procuring entity to charge a non-refundable fee for solicitation documents in accordance with regulation 87 (4) of the Public Procurement Regulations, 2022 in order to cover costs incurred in processing tenders.

 

ZPPA wishes to inform suppliers and contractors that the Public Procurement Act No.8 of 2020 promotes the participation of citizen bidders by limiting participation in Open National Bidding and Open National Selection to citizen bidders. The Public Procurement Act has several provisions that support the participation of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in public procurement. The provisions include:

·     the restriction of participation to citizen bidders in National Open Bidding in accordance with section 39(2);

·     the requirement for local bidders to partner with citizen bidders in line with section 39 (3);

·     in section 39 (6) a foreign bidder is required to partner with citizen suppliers or bidders;

·     preference and reservation schemes for target groups in accordance with section 91 (target groups may include citizen suppliers in a particular industry, SMEs, enterprises owned by women, youth and persons with disabilities or any other group designated by Government Policy); and

·      a foreign bidder or supplier is required to subcontract a percentage of the total value of the procurement for all procurements of goods, works or services exceeding the prescribed thresholds, to citizen bidders and suppliers in line with section 93 on subcontracting policy.

 

ZPPA will continue to sensitize procuring entities on the citizen centric provisions in the Public Procurement Act, No. 8 of 2020 through various capacity building interventions in order to ensure that there is increased participation by citizen bidders and suppliers in public procurement processes.

Lastly, ZPPA would like to work with the public and the National Association for Medium and Small-Scale Contractors, in order to address valid concerns in relation to the public procurement of goods, works and services by procuring entities. Such engagements will expedite the process of ZPPA providing advice and technical support to Government and procuring entities on procurement policy and other matters related to public procurement.

 

 

 

Iñutu Mushambatwa

Principal Officer – Public Procurement

 

Principal Officer - Public Relations

Zambia Public Procurement Authority

Landline: +260 211 377419

Email: info@zppa.org.zm

 

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

ZPPA mandate

The Zambia Public Procurement Authority (ZPPA) is a regulatory body established under section 5 (1) of the Public Procurement Act No.8 of 2020. ZPPA is responsible for standard setting; compliance and performance monitoring; professional development; planning; information management and dissemination in public procurement.