Treasury steps in to combat tender fraud

The new measures use provisions in the Public Finance Management Act, which allow the Treasury to monitor procurement transactions in government departments, in provinces, state-owned enterprises and 17 cities.

"The Public Finance Management Act gives national Treasury the power to regulate procurement of national departments and gives the same power to provinces," Treasury's chief financial procurement officer Kenneth Brown said on Monday.

A team would also be established to monitor procurement processes in the smaller municipalities and in provincial supply chain management.

The Treasury had not used this aspect of its legislative powers before due to "a lack of capacity".

"We are not going to interfere or run the procurement process, but departments and provinces will need to make sure the process is done properly," he said.

According to the report, around R30bn of the national fiscus is lost through fraud and corruption each year.