Book Review: Public procurement regulation in Africa

• Jurisdiction: South Africa
• Date: 16 August 2019
• Published date: 16 August 2019
• Pages: 638-640
• Citation: (2014) 25 Stell LR 638
• Author: Stephen de la Harpe

Public Procurement Regulation in Africa by G Quinot & S Arrowsmith

(eds). Cambridge University Press Cape Town 2013. xvii and 429 pp.

ISBN 978110766252 (soft cover) / ISBN 9781107028326 (hard cover).

Price $154.99 (hard cover)

Research on public procurement in A frica is not as prevalent as in the

developed world. This presents a stumbli ng block for a proper understa nding

and improvement of public procurement regulation in Africa. In South Af rica

it is only in the last few years that public pro curement has come to the fore as

a separate eld of study, notably so because of the work of professors Phoebe

Bolton, (who did her doctoral thesis on government procu rement in South

Africa) and Geo Quinot (who did his doctoral thesis on the judicial regulation

of state commercial activity) from the African Public Procurement Regulation

Research Unit, Faculty of Law, University of Stellenbosch. They have since

published widely, including textbooks, on public procureme nt.

It is not surprising t hat this book is the product of a resea rch partner ship

between the University of St ellenbosch and the University of Nottingham.

The doyen of public procurement in the UK, Professor Sue Arrowsmith,

is attached to the lat ter un iversity. She is the founding editor of the rst

international a cademic journal on pu blic procurement namely the Publi c

Procurement Law Revie w and has received numerous awards for her work on

public procurement. She is probably best know n for her numerous publications

on public procurement. In the prefa ce to the book it is stated that the main aim

of the research project was to exami ne the current state of public procurement

regulation in Africa. The goal of the book is “to assist African domestic

development and to inform local resea rch and policymaking through it s short-

term outputs… and long-ter m impact” (xiii).

The introduction to the book (by G Quinot & S Arrowsmith) provides a

valuable background to what is to follow. It is, however, much more than an

introduction to the book . It also serves as an introduct ion to public procurement

in general. It provides a valuable and concise exposition of the esse ntial

principles of public procurement and int egrates and puts into p erspective its

main objectives within t he context of Africa.

The rest of the book is divided into two parts. In the rst part analyses of

the legal rules governing public procure ment in Botswana ( by RA Kumar

& E Cabor n), Ethiopia (by TH Bahta), Ghana (by DN Dagbania), Kenya (by

KT Udeh), Namibia (by SK Amoo & S Dicken), Nigeria (by KT Udeh & M L

638 STELL LR 2014 3

(2014) 25 Stell LR 638

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