Pretoria - Media reports that National Treasury’s Chief Procurement Officer Kenneth Brown is leaving at the end of June are not true, said the National Treasury.
“Indeed, Mr Brown has been approached various times by the private sector but has decided to stay at the Treasury to manage the initiatives the Office of the Chief Procurement Officer (OCPO) is involved in,” it said in a statement on Monday.
National Treasury said the OCPO was established in February 2013 to modernise government procurement and put systems in place that will help curb leakage in public expenditure, among others.
“Under Mr Brown’s leadership, the OCPO has made tremendous progress on these objectives to ensure that South Africa’s procurement system is one that is transparent and enables government to realise value-for-money, in line with section 217 of the Constitution,” said the Treasury.
National Treasury said the Chief Procurement Officer has been instrumental in building the capacity of the unit with professional and experienced experts to ensure that the success of the unit is not dependent on one individual.
It further added that maintaining stability of the OCPO is paramount as the unit is central to government’s plan of realising efficiencies in spending and curbing corruption. – SAnews.gov.za
