The Insourcing Bill: Strengthening state capacity and protecting workers’ rights - Cosatu

PARLIAMENT held an important hearing on the Insourcing Bill this past week.

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PARLIAMENT held an important hearing on the Insourcing Bill this past week.

(AI LAB)

This Bill provides the nation with the unique opportunity to address a key ingredient that has fueled state capture and corruption, the hollowing out of the state and the suppression of vulnerable workers’ rights since the advent of democracy in 1994.

The Bill has been tabled against a background of a nation grappling with the dire challenges of a 41.1% unemployment rate, entrenched levels of poverty and inequality, endemic crime and corruption. It is being considered whilst the state experiences severe financial constraints.

The costs and damage of the decade of state capture and corruption are well known. What is not appreciated by many is the role of public procurement in fueling it. The state with an annual public procurement budget of R1 trillion is tempting, low hanging fruit to be feasted upon by a growing class of tenderpreneurs built solely to profit at the public's expense.

Lax public procurement practices, particularly in local government and state-owned enterprises (SOEs), have seen the development of an incestuous relationship between corrupt and criminal elements in the public and private sectors. At times individuals within supply chain management in the state create companies in their relatives’ names and ensure that they receive lucrative state tenders.

These tenders all too often are rigged at prices far above their market value. Media headlines are rife with tenderpreneurs failing to provide the goods they were paid for, often requiring the state to pay twice.