Since 16 March 2020 until 31 July 2020, the City has spent more than R61,8 million in general emergency COVID-19 procurement to protect the most vulnerable in our society. This money was spent on shelter, food, mattresses, water provision and burial requirements. This is in addition to the R72,8 million that was procured for the provision of personal protective equipment to ensure that basic services can continue while protecting frontline and essential members of staff in performing their duties.
Emergency procurement processes were followed in terms of the Supply Chain Management Policy, the National Treasury and the Municipal Finance Management Act to avert human suffering and to ensure the continuation of essential and basic services.
All COVID-19-related procurement tenders and requests for information have been published on the City’s website as part of our commitment to be transparent and accountable to members of the public.
‘The City has acted in an accountable and transparent manner to ensure that these funds were spent appropriately and in line with National Treasury guidelines and all legislation governing public finance spending in South Africa. It has been well documented that the emergency basic services and health interventions in Cape Town by the City and the Western Cape Government have stood out head and shoulders above comparative cities in South Africa. We have not only as a city and province managed to avert a devastating infection peak; we implemented interventions in a transparent and accountable manner. The consolidated R133,8 million procured COVID-19-related services and goods, has been done responsibly and by the book.
‘It is also worth noting that the City achieved South Africa’s highest service reach to street people during the hard lockdown levels of the national lockdown period, when the national government specifically instructed municipalities to immediately shelter homeless persons amidst safety risks. The City reached roughly double the number of street people compared to the whole of Gauteng, according to the National Department of Social Development report to Parliament in April 2020.
‘We will keep ensuring that what we need to procure for COVID-19-related expenditure is done with the utmost respect and transparency that expenditure of public money deserves,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Finance and Executive Deputy Mayor, Alderman Ian Neilson.
The City ensured that due diligence processes were followed and that prices were benchmarked against National Treasury guidelines. It must be noted, procurement had to be done on an extremely urgent basis in response to the pandemic, to carry out basic and essential service delivery.
Initially, some prices were higher than normal due to the constraints on national and international supply and demand caused by the COVID-19 crisis; however, as time has progressed, unit prices came down.
Where possible, the City used existing tenders to source requirements and in other instances, a competitive request for quotations (RFQ) process was followed. In instances where there was an immediate need to support frontline staff, emergency procurement was instituted through deviation processes. As far as possible, most deviations were tested for competitive pricing and negotiations with suppliers were undertaken to obtain value for money.
The City follows a transparent procurement process and has strictly complied to the National Treasury Emergency Procurement Guidelines.
For full disclosure on the procurement, please visit www.capetown.gov.za/coronavirus or visit the Supply Chain Management (SCM) Department page for more information.