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Treasury tells councils to speed up procurement of coronavirus supplies

National Treasury has issued an instruction note for municipalities and their entities to speed up the procurement of goods that would help prevent and contain the spread of the coronavirus, it announced on Thursday.

After declaring a national disaster on Sunday evening, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced government measures to assist in containing the spread and supporting businesses that would bear the brunt of the pandemic.

Treasury said on in its statement that the instruction note applied to Public Finance Management Act institutions, as well as the Municipal Finance Management Act, and would help expedite the procurement of items needed to curb the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus. 

It would also help prevent abuse of procurement processes during the outbreak. 

The statement said the instruction note and circular listed the prices of goods or commodities to curb opportunistic use of the coronavirus outbreak to drive profit margins.

It also said a circular had been provided giving a list of available goods, commodities and items that had not been catered for on centrally facilitated contracts, but which could be procured from certain compliant service providers.

Government has been cracking down on opportunists trying to profit unduly from the pandemic. Earlier on Thursday, strict new regulations were announced to prevent price gouging, Fin24 reported.

Companies are not allowed to hike prices for a list of goods by more than the increases in the cost to produce these products. They are also not allowed to hike their profit margins on these products to above the average mark-ups during the three months prior to 1 March 2020.

The list of products includes toilet paper, hand sanitiser, face masks, disinfectants and antiseptics. 

On Wednesday, National Treasury warned that scammers were targeting businesses who supply to government by purporting to send out requests for quotations on coronavirus prevention equipment.

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