The language of tendering in Botswana is very similar to that employed by the World Bank. The Botswana Ministry of Finance is the ministry responsible for government procurement of consulting work. Although in the past the rules concerning procurement were very complicated and open to conflicting interpretations, in 2001 these rules were simplified and consolidated under one law: the Public Procurement & Asset Disposal Act (No 10 of 2001). Under this law, the Central Tender Board was renamed the Public Procurement & Asset Disposal Board. The District Tender Boards were reconstituted as Procurement & Asset Disposal Committees operating within the District administrations but answerable to the central PP&ADB in the capital, Gaborone.
The main aim of the Botswana procurement policy is to ensure that the system is not corrupt. Nevertheless, a system of granting of preferences is permitted in the Botswana tendering system. As race is downplayed as a factor in Botswana society, such preferences do not depend on race, disability or gender. In Botswana the system of preference is based on whether the consultancy or contracting company is owned by Botswana citizens. Only in the case of disasters or calamities are certain other preferences permitted: Section 66 of the Act makes provision for preferences to be made to "specific, disadvantaged women's communities and regions and areas subject to occasional calamities." The Botswana government draws a distinction between contractors and consultants. In order to qualify for the preferences, consultants and contractors are required to register on separate service provider databases, and to obtain a registration number.
The Botswana government recognizes 3 categories of tenders:
With an exchange rate of around R1.30 (ZAR) for 1 Botswana pula at present, it would seem that the Botswana tendering procedure is heavily weighted in favour of Botswana citizens, and only the very large contracts (i.e. over P50 million or R75 million ZAR) are completely open to outside companies. As the Botswana economy has grown rapidly over the past 3 decades, so the amount of external funding has declined - to the extent that less than 1% of government contracts today are funded by external funders. At least 30% of the Dept of Public Works construction budget is reserved for Botswana citizens. As Botswana has a small population of just over 1 million and there are very few qualified Botswana citizens in certain fields, it is often very difficult to apply the restricted tendering procedure. In such cases the maximum preference permitted may be capped, e.g. for IT and consulting services the maximum preference allowed is capped at P100 000. This gives confidence to foreign-based companies that the system is not completely skewed to exclude them.
For national competitive bidding (i.e. up to P50 million), the weighting of preferences in favour of Botswana citizens is as follows:
Before being allowed to tender for government contracts in Botswana, a consultant must register on the PP&ADB database of consultants. Before being permitted to register as an independent consultant in Botswana, a foreign national must have worked in Botswana for 1 year. Only consultants and contractors who are registered with the PP&ADB are permitted to tender for restricted tenders and national competitive bids. Open competitive bidding is open to all companies, even those without a presence within Botswana. To register with the PP&ADB, Botswana citizens fill in CTB Form No 6, while foreign nationals fill in CTB Form No 7. All government tenders are published in the Botswana Government Gazette, which comes out once a week on Fridays, although lately the gazette has been appearing on Mondays. All IT tenders are advertised on the Botswana government website as well. Government tenders are also published in the local Botswana newspapers.
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