Governments that are more transparent can deliver faster and better services, unlock economic opportunities, improve the lives of residents and strengthen participatory democracy, particularly at local level.
This is precisely why the City of Johannesburg is planning to make its tender system open and transparent to the public.
After all, we owe it to the voters who elected us into office and also because it's a constitutional imperative to run an open government.
About 9000 participants who attended the 6th Global Forum on Reinventing Government agreed transparency was key to ensuring governments perform much better.
The gathering was held under the auspices of the global body - the United Nations department of economic and social affairs.
The Global Forum was themed "Towards Participatory and Transparent Governance" and took place in Seoul in 2005.
The participants at this gathering included heads of state and government, ministers, parliamentarians, mayors, senior officials, civil society representatives, international organisations and members of the private sector.
The participants who took part in the discussions also noted that without governments being transparent and with a lack of participation of residents, people-centred development can never be achieved.
Without this key aspect of our governance system, it means no government can truly fulfil the wishes of its people.
Transparency provides citizens with access not only to information, but also to decision-making and the power to influence public choices.
Our efforts as the City to make the procurement process open and transparent is at the heart of making our administration clean and accountable to the ratepayers.
By making Joburg more transparent, not only would it make the information easily accessible to residents but also it means the public can hold us accountable and can better monitor how money is spent.
This forces the administration to be more accountable and change the way in which things have been done.
An open tender system means only merit will be the winner as contracts will be awarded to the best-qualifying applicant.
The good thing is the public will get to see exactly how the best applicant was chosen.
This would ensure the City gets value for money and quality service.
The procurement of goods, services and works over the next three years will amount to a staggering R1.5-trillion across all spheres of government.
This is an astounding amount of money which if spent wisely and efficiently, can ensure the needy receive adequate service delivery and important infrastructure is built.
This is according to the national Treasury's Supply Chain Management (SCM) Update 2016 report.
"Efficiently and cost effectively managed public procurement can, through intelligent strategic procurement strategies, accelerate quality delivery of services and at the same time contribute to economic growth," reads the SCM Review Update 2016 report.
Transparency and open contracting are critical elements of any public sector supply chain management system, argued national Treasury's director-general Lungisa Fuzile in his foreword to the 2016 Public Sector Supply Chain Management Review report.
Fuzile further made a case that, if the supply chain management was implemented as envisaged in section 217 of the Constitution - that promotes transparency, fairness, equity - the benefits will be huge.
These benefits include the realisation of good-quality service delivery, the economy will grow as economic infrastructure expands, and the government will be able to buy goods, services and infrastructure at lower costs.
For suppliers, this means the cost of doing business with the state should decrease substantially.
Conducting an open, transparent and fair tender system in the City will ensure there is no room for corruption.
Dagada is the City of Joburg's member of the mayoral committee for finance
Transparent tenders close down corruption and open doors
Governments that are more transparent can deliver faster and better services, unlock economic opportunities, improve the lives of residents and strengthen participatory democracy, particularly at local level.
This is precisely why the City of Johannesburg is planning to make its tender system open and transparent to the public.
After all, we owe it to the voters who elected us into office and also because it's a constitutional imperative to run an open government.
About 9000 participants who attended the 6th Global Forum on Reinventing Government agreed transparency was key to ensuring governments perform much better.
The gathering was held under the auspices of the global body - the United Nations department of economic and social affairs.
The Global Forum was themed "Towards Participatory and Transparent Governance" and took place in Seoul in 2005.
The participants at this gathering included heads of state and government, ministers, parliamentarians, mayors, senior officials, civil society representatives, international organisations and members of the private sector.
The participants who took part in the discussions also noted that without governments being transparent and with a lack of participation of residents, people-centred development can never be achieved.
Without this key aspect of our governance system, it means no government can truly fulfil the wishes of its people.
Transparency provides citizens with access not only to information, but also to decision-making and the power to influence public choices.
Our efforts as the City to make the procurement process open and transparent is at the heart of making our administration clean and accountable to the ratepayers.
By making Joburg more transparent, not only would it make the information easily accessible to residents but also it means the public can hold us accountable and can better monitor how money is spent.
This forces the administration to be more accountable and change the way in which things have been done.
An open tender system means only merit will be the winner as contracts will be awarded to the best-qualifying applicant.
The good thing is the public will get to see exactly how the best applicant was chosen.
This would ensure the City gets value for money and quality service.
The procurement of goods, services and works over the next three years will amount to a staggering R1.5-trillion across all spheres of government.
This is an astounding amount of money which if spent wisely and efficiently, can ensure the needy receive adequate service delivery and important infrastructure is built.
This is according to the national Treasury's Supply Chain Management (SCM) Update 2016 report.
"Efficiently and cost effectively managed public procurement can, through intelligent strategic procurement strategies, accelerate quality delivery of services and at the same time contribute to economic growth," reads the SCM Review Update 2016 report.
Transparency and open contracting are critical elements of any public sector supply chain management system, argued national Treasury's director-general Lungisa Fuzile in his foreword to the 2016 Public Sector Supply Chain Management Review report.
Fuzile further made a case that, if the supply chain management was implemented as envisaged in section 217 of the Constitution - that promotes transparency, fairness, equity - the benefits will be huge.
These benefits include the realisation of good-quality service delivery, the economy will grow as economic infrastructure expands, and the government will be able to buy goods, services and infrastructure at lower costs.
For suppliers, this means the cost of doing business with the state should decrease substantially.
Conducting an open, transparent and fair tender system in the City will ensure there is no room for corruption.
Dagada is the City of Joburg's member of the mayoral committee for finance
Would you like to comment on this article?
Register (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Trending
Latest Videos