The proposal is an attempt to stop municipalities inviting tenders without authorisation.

The system, according to the provincial government, will be run by procurement experts.

Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs spokesman Lennox Mabaso said yesterday that the establishment of a provincially managed bid-adjudication committee will guide and encourage municipalities to follow proper tendering procedures and prevent them from being overcharged by suppliers.

Earlier, while presenting her department's R1.2-billion budget in the KwaZulu-Natal legislature, Cogta MEC Nomusa Dube told parliament that officials had discovered that flouting supply-chain management systems was the major cause of irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure.

Dube said municipalities made "excessive" use of legislation intended to allow the procurement of goods and services in times of emergency.

An audit of the abuse of the legislation had led to about R520.6-million in unauthorised expenditure, R2.1-billion in irregular expenditure, and R11.7-million in fruitless and wasteful expenditure.

eThekwini was the biggest culprit. In the two previous financial years it awarded R114.7-million and R667.2-million worth of tenders using emergency legislation.