The Gauteng provincial government is taking the tender system to a higher level of accountability and transparency. Yesterday, provincial treasury announced the establishment of a procurement hub which will oversee tender processes in the province.The facility will enable documentation, recording and public viewing of the tender adjudication process as and when it takes place.Ultimately, within five years, all provincial departments should be able to utilise the facility in their tender process.The provincial treasury has budgeted R2-million in the 2015-2016 financial year to develop the hub. The hub will be housed in a building owned by provincial government through the Gauteng department of infrastructure development.Finance MEC Barbara Creecy said: " We want to have an open adjudication process. The idea of having a procurement hub is so that we have a venue where we are able to keep track of all tenders received and all the supporting documents received, recorded and locked-up so that it is not tampered with."For tenders over R50-million we want to have an independent evaluation process," Creecy said.Proceedings of different committees sitting, at different stages of the tender process, will be recorded in audio, documentation and visuals.These records will give independent auditors all the necessary evidence they need to conclude their findings about the awarding of a particular tender when there are disputes.In January, Creecy launched the first pilot project of an open tender system where the public was allowed to walk in and view the adjudication of a tender.The hub will have a venue where the public will see, through glass, and hear, via a microphone, how a decision [to award a particular tender to a particular tenderer, for example, is arrived at.But not everything taking place at the procurement hub will be for public consumption."What should be in the public domain will be in the public domain and what should not be in the public domain will not," Creecy said...