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Cape Town - The Treasury has denied claims that chief procurement officer Kenneth Brown, who has been with the department for almost 20 years, is leaving.
It said in a statement on Monday that a newspaper report of Brown retiring at the end of June was not true.
IOL reported that a Treasury source confirmed that Brown is retiring, but it added that Treasury spokesperson Phumza Macanda declined to comment on the matter.
Brown’s name was last month mentioned in the controversial Gupta saga about offering ministerial jobs.
The Sunday Times reported that when members of the Gupta family offered deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas the position of finance minister, some of their demands included getting rid of Treasury officials, including Brown, who was opposed to a proposed R1trn nuclear deal.
Since June 2015, Brown and his team have been probing tenders above R10m across government in their quest to ensure it gets value for money for its spending, reduces wastage, and clamps down on irregularities in procurement.
"Under Mr Brown’s leadership, the OCPO [office of the chief procurement officer] has made tremendous progress on these objectives to ensure that South Africa’s procurement system is one that is transparent and enables government to realise value-for-money, in line with section 217 of the Constitution," said Treasury.
It said Brown has been instrumental in building the capacity of the unit with professional and experienced experts, adding that its success is not dependent on one individual.
"Indeed, Mr Brown has been approached various times by the private sector but has decided to stay at the Treasury to manage the initiatives the OCPO is involved in."
Treasury said maintaining stability of the OCPO is paramount as the unit is central to government’s plan of realising efficiencies in spending and curbing corruption.
Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan announced in his budget speech that initiatives of the OCPO will be extended to include monitoring of state-owned companies’ procurement plans and supply chain processes, and reviews of contracts above R10m to ensure value for money. Centrally negotiated contracts will be mandatory with effect from April 2016.
Gordhan further indicated that the OCPO’s mandate is to achieve savings of R25bn a year by the third year of the current MTEF period, out of a government procurement budget of about R500bn a year.
