Policy impediments that prohibit SOEs from advancing their developmental mandate: National Treasury & dtic briefing

Video National Treasury briefed the Portfolio Committee in a virtual meeting on its responses to State-Owned Companies' (SOCs') procurement legislative challenges, taking the Committee through the challenges and indicating the proposals put forward to deal with some of them. Some of these challenges included the requirement of National Treasury to approve contract amendments above some thresholds. Approval of these variations should be done away with.  National Treasury proposed that these responsibilities should reside with the SOC Accounting Authorities. It mentioned the recent court judgment, but did not go through it in detail for the Committee. The DTIC presented a discussion of the industrial policy, and the potential for state procurement to be used for industrial policy objectives. The presentation was also on the advancement of the debate on the issues of the preferential procurement policy framework (PPPF). The DTIC was responsible for the implementation of the local content policy and the broad-based black economic empowerment (BBBEE) policy. Members responded to both presentations, raising concerns about some of the key challenges raised. They highlighted that these engagements should be ongoing, as they remained of the utmost importance. The discussion of procurement issues was not a new discussion. Some Members questioned the outcome of the court judgment and the reasons for the invalidity. Concerns were raised about the vagueness of some of the points put forward, and they said that they wished they had been given more time to discuss some of them. The Committee expressed concern about the absence of the Department of Public Enterprises from these discussions.