The Departmental Tenders Boards are now referred to as the Public Procurement Committees and this is covered by the provisions Section 23 – 25 of the Procurement Act
Public Procurement Committee
Subject to section 24, the Director shall, on the recommendation of the accounting officer, appoint a Public Procurement Committee.
(1) Subject to subsections (2) and (3), the Public Procurement Committee comprises —
(a) a chairperson;
(b) a representative appointed by the Permanent Secretary in the Department of Finance;
(c) three other persons.
(Substituted by Act 13 of 2020)
(2) A person appointed under this section must have —
(a) technical and professional competence;
(b) public procurement skills and knowledge required for the performance of the functions of the Public Procurement Committee; and
(c) proven integrity and sound decision-making abilities.
(3) The Director shall, in appointing the members of a Public Procurement Committee, seek to establish a balance of skills and experience to ensure that the Public Procurement Committee —
(a) has an appropriate level of seniority and experience in decision-making;
(b) includes persons with knowledge and experience in public procurement and other relevant professional disciplines; and
(c) includes persons with knowledge and experience of the operations of a procuring entity.
(1) The Public Procurement Committee shall ensure that all public procurement by a procuring entity is conducted in accordance with this Act.
(2) The functions of the Public Procurement Committee, in respect of public procurement of an intermediate value, are —
(a) to approve public procurement procedures, tendering documents, public procurement contracts and conditions and addenda to tendering documents;
(b) (Deleted by Act 13 of 2020)
(c) to deliberate on the findings of Tender Evaluation Committees and advise on award of public procurement contracts or otherwise; and
(d) to review and approve variations, addenda or amendments to on-going public procurement contracts in accordance with best public procurement practices and in compliance with this Act.
(3) All matters handled at each meeting of the Public Procurement Committee shall be recorded and minutes of meetings circulated prior to the next meeting.
(4) The accounting officer shall maintain a record of the minutes under subsection (3).
(5) In the course of examination of tenders, the Public Procurement Committee may invite a member of the Tender Evaluation Committee to provide clarifications on the contents of the Tender Evaluation Report and the Public Procurement Committee may request the Tender Evaluation Committee to review its recommendations on specific grounds backed by the contents of the tendering documents, guidelines issued by the Director and in accordance with the provisions under this Act.
(6) Where the Public Procurement Committee is in receipt of a Tender Evaluation Report with dissenting views that has a significant effect on the result arrived at by the Public Procurement Committee, the Public Procurement Committee shall examine the grounds for the dissenting views.
(7) The Public Procurement Committee may in the case mentioned in subsection
(6) request for a review on specific grounds and where the dissenting views persist, it may decide on the issue and approve the award of the procurement contract, cancel the tendering process or as a last resort appoint another Tender Evaluation Committee to look into the evaluation exercise afresh.
(8) The decision made and the reasons for it shall be recorded and signed by the Chairperson.