Contractors that fail to deliver on government contracts they have been awarded, may soon find themselves unable to do business with the government in KwaZulu-Natal.
The KZN Department of Public Works is developing a policy that aims to blacklist these companies, the directors or owners and prevent them from re-emerging with new names.
MEC for Public Works Martin Meyer said: “We have only now started the process, so it means putting things in place. We also want to ensure an integrated process between all three spheres of government.”
The MEC’s spokesperson Steve Bhengu expanded on the policy, saying it was at a developmental phase and the department was still engaging with other relevant government stakeholders.
“Currently, the department is working on a policy that will help it tackle these problematic companies. The MEC will also be engaging with cabinet, provincial government and national government to have a uniform, synchronised approach to have these companies blacklisted, so this will help in a sense that, let’s say a company is blacklisted by the Department of Public Works, they cannot then go to another department where they will then be able to perform duties, if they go to another department they will also show up as blacklisted.
“This will result in a national database to see which companies have been blacklisted, the MEC is also looking to link these companies to IDs of individuals because it’s not always clear who owns these companies. Because they are identified only by name, they are then able to re-register or rename themselves and emerge elsewhere under a different name.
“These steps will also help to eliminate fronting in the economy. It will also ensure that the companies that are utilised are legitimate and performing," Bhengu said.
Chairperson of the Public Works Portfolio Committee and IFP member Nhlanhla Msimango said the committee was going to be meeting with the department where it expects that the proposed policy would be unpacked.
“We are in support of dealing with such occurrences because we cannot tolerate a situation where people cheat the government out of funds, and the people who fail to deliver on projects need to be held accountable.
“We want to see the policy formulated and we would be in support as long as it is not going to create unnecessary burdens on the public,” said the chairperson.
He added that the policy could help to weed out those who lacked the capacity to do the work, “even those that under quote, they quote too little and find that they cannot do the work with the money they have quoted. That is an indication they do not know what they are doing”.
KZN Growth Coalition’s Andrzej Kiepiela said they would want to be consulted on any new policy or law that is to be implemented.
He said the country had good laws and the challenge often came with the implementation of those laws.
“We in the business community have laws and regulations that must be followed, and if it’s proven that a business has broken the law, they must be punished, it should not be a witchhunt. If it has been proven, they should be blacklisted.”
He said the implementation of the law was key to dealing with wrong behaviour pointing out that it was often disheartening to see an official that has been accused of wrongdoing being moved from one post to another post, often in the same city.
The Mercury