The construction desk/The registers

National Treasury: restricted suppliers and tender defaulters

The two lists a firm ends up on for abusing public procurement, and the reason to check the directors as well as the company.

What the register is for

National Treasury keeps a Database of Restricted Suppliers, of companies and individuals barred from doing business with the state, and a Register of Tender Defaulters under the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act. A restriction follows the person: a director on the list who opens a new company is still restricted. A private client is not bound by the lists, and should read them anyway, because a firm barred from public work has usually been barred for a reason a private client would share.

Who must be on it

Every buyer, public or private, before appointing; every contractor, to know where it stands.

Where it comes from

Public Finance Management Act and Treasury Regulations for restriction; Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act 12 of 2004 for the Register of Tender Defaulters.

How to check

free, at the register itselfLook up at ocpo.treasury.gov.za

The Office of the Chief Procurement Officer publishes both. Search the company and each director.

What a listing does not prove

Absence from the lists proves only that nobody has restricted the firm yet.

Read the detail

the pieces that go deeper

The panel

A contractor on the panel is checked on National Treasury: restricted suppliers and tender defaulters before it quotes, and the check is repeated when the registration falls due. You see one quote from one company, with this already done.