Over the past five years, South Africa has recorded R406.83 billion in irregular expenditure, with 68% linked to procurement and contract management non-compliance.

Public procurement plays a critical role in delivering services to citizens. However, persistent weaknesses in procurement and supply chain management continue to undermine performance and public trust.

These challenges are driven by:

• Systemic non-compliance with constitutional principles of fairness, transparency, competitiveness and cost-effectiveness. (Auditor-General South Africa Consolidated general report on national and provincial audit outcomes 2024–25. AGSA)
• Persistent use of uncompetitive practices, weak contract management, and widespread irregular expenditure point to deep-rooted governance and accountability failures. (Auditor-General South Africa Consolidated general report on national and provincial audit outcomes 2024–25. AGSA).
• Predominantly manual and fragmented procurement processes
• Limited system integration and lack of interoperable digital infrastructure
• Insufficient availability of reliable, transaction-level data for decision-making
• Limited visibility across the procurement lifecycle, constraining transparency and oversight
• Inconsistent application of ethics, compliance and control practices
• Evolving audit requirements in digitised environments

The result is a system that is vulnerable to inefficiencies, misconduct and weak oversight that affects more than 15 million citizens who rely on public services.

In this context, there is a clear need to strengthen institutional capacity and frameworks for ethical, transparent and accountable procurement.

South Africa’s procurement reform agenda is increasingly anchored in digitisation — not as a standalone technology fix, but as a system enabler. In line with National Treasury’s approach, this means building integrated digital public infrastructure where data informs decision-making, systems are interoperable, and transaction-level information strengthens transparency, oversight and value for money.

This requires a shift from manual, fragmented processes to automated, data-driven and transparent procurement systems that enable real-time visibility, reduce discretion and strengthen integrity controls.

In line with this reform agenda GTAC and its partners began piloting the automation of key procurement processes some time ago. As government prepares to scale these systems across institutions, there is an urgent need to:

• Evaluate what is working and what is not
• Strengthen integrity and compliance mechanisms
• Ensure systems are aligned with new legislation, including the Public Procurement Act (2024)
• Build institutional readiness for broader rollout

The GTAC eProcurement initiative and the Dialogue Facility project are practical, system-level contributions supporting this transition ensuring that digitised procurement systems are robust, ethical and fit for scale.

Through a structured dialogue approach that makes use of study tours, training workshops, learning exchanges and virtual clinics and symposium and technical workstreams which meet weekly, the initiative will evaluate and strengthen the GTAC e-procurement services prototype across four key areas that improve performance, integrity and readiness for scale:

This initiative aims to deliver both immediate improvements and long-term systemic change.

In the short-term this project will improve the performance of procurement automation pilots, strengthen compliance and oversight mechanisms and enhance capacity among procurement officials.

In the medium-term this project will deliver increased consistency and integrity across procurement processes, better use of data for monitoring and decision-making and improved audit outcomes.

While in the long-term it will make public procurement systems more transparent, accountable and efficient public procurement systems, build stronger public institutions and ultimately improve service delivery outcomes for citizens.

This project is delivered through a strong partnership between the South African government and the European Union as well as other international organisations and technical experts.

A wide network of partners contributes to the delivery of the project, including:

• Provincial treasuries and municipalities will provide capacity building, pilot testing in provincial and municipal contexts, and rollout support to strengthen implementation as well as input from the local context to inform and refine approaches.
• Private sector technology and innovation partners will provide technology solutions expertise, system design innovation and implementation feedback
• Civil society organisations focused on transparency and accountability will provide Accountability perspective; public transparency advocacy; civil society capacity building.

Workshops, training sessions and knowledge-sharing events form a key part of this initiative. Information on upcoming events and past engagements will be shared here.

Insights, tools and resources developed through the project will be made available to support learning and replication across government.

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