forumadmin posted this 07 May 2011
Posted on behalf of Eric Jean Yoboué, AfDB:
THE SECOND GENERATION OF PUBLIC PROCUREMENT REFORMS - MYTH OR REALITY
Introduction
1. At the dawn of the 1990s, several countries in the process of development around the world undertook reforms of their public procurement systems to contribute to the improvement of public financial management and the development of the national private sector. In Africa in particular, the launching of reforms took place after the "Conference on Public Procurement Reform in Africa." This Conference, which was organized jointly by the African Development Bank (ADB), the World Bank (WB) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Programme, was held in Abidjan in December 1998. It brought together participants from all of the African countries and representatives of the private sector and civil society. Ten years later, in November 2009, African countries met again in Tunis to review the reforms achieved during this decade.
Progress Made
2. The Tunis Conference confirmed the progress made by African countries in improving the level of quality of their public procurement systems. These improvements led firstly, to the implementation of legislative and regulatory frameworks in compliance with generally accepted standards at the international level and enabled the promotion of the principles of competition, free access, fairness, transparency, ..etc. Secondly, they focused on the establishment of new institutional frameworks for clarifying and spreading, in a balanced way, the responsibilities of the different actors in the procurement process, and enabling effective development of national capacities of public purchasers and private operators. These institutional changes led in particular to the establishment of regulatory bodies involving public sector administration and the private sector, internal control structures, and the responsible entities of public procurement.
Consolidation of the Accomplished Reforms
3. The Conference noted that progress could only be consolidated in maintaining the current momentum, notably through a real political will of Governments to pursue the reforms already engaged and to provide the necessary resources. In particular, in order to develop systems of adequate quality, efforts must be made by Governments to (i) ensure sustainable development of national capacity building institutions to enable them to effectively play their role, and (ii) strengthen the integrity of the public procurement system in promoting regularity of independent controls and actually taking sanctions against the perpetrators of misconduct, fraud or corruption. The need to promote "accountability" as a principle of public procurement management remains the keystone for success in the implementation, in Africa, of systems of good quality and sustainable performance. However, these important objectives cannot be achieved by the sole intentions of the actors directly involved in the procurement process because the actions to be undertaken to achieve them also depend on other sectors involved in the management of the State.
Towards Second Generation Public Procurement Reforms
4. The achievement of the objective to establish a national system of public procurement of high quality, i.e. based on a regulatory and institutional framework promoting transparency and efficiency in public procurement depends first and foremost on the actors directly involved in the procurement and management of the procurement process. On the other hand, the performance of the system depends on factors exogenous to it; the most important of which can be summarized under the following roles:
a. The Public Service[/i">: Human resources remain an indispensable element for the proper functioning of any institution, and therefore of those in the public procurement system. Provision of qualified personnel and in sufficient number is mainly the responsibility of departments such as the Public Service. This responsibility extends also to training and staff career development.
b. The Financial Sector[/i">: The existence of a solid national private sector is a necessary condition for the proper functioning of a public procurement system. In developing countries, the State is the first provider of business opportunities for its national private sector. The establishment of a national legal framework that promotes the creation and development of SMEs should be part of the priorities of the State. This legal framework must include devices and mechanisms to facilitate access to resources by national private sector to equip them and to have access to the public procurement market;
c. The Judicial Sector[/i">: The accountability is one of the keystones or pillars of good performance of a system of public procurement. Actions falling under this keystone include the settlement of differences (disputes and litigation) during the execution of contracts, the conduct of independent audits (jurisdictional controls), the identification and management of any faults committed and the institution of civil or criminal sanctions against perpetrators of fraud and corruption depends on the judicial system.
d. Public Finances[/i">: Payment within the required time limits for the invoices of companies is an indispensable condition for the proper functioning of a system of public procurement. This objective can be achieved only through the existence of effective mechanisms of budgetary management, accounting and public finance. When these exist and function in an effective manner, they allow sufficient credit to be reserved for committed or future contracts, engage/liquidate/schedule expenditures, and to make payments within the required time periods, for services rendered by companies in the private sector.
The Ultimate Goal of "Value for Money" in Public Procurement Management
5. The achievement of the ultimate objective to "obtain value for money" therefore depends not only on the actors directly involved in the procurement process, but also on actors external to the system but whose importance is crucial to strengthen the quality of the system and make it efficient. Harmonization of the actions of the actors implementing different sector elements is coordinated at the State level: the second generation of reforms of public procurement must aim at the integration of such reforms in those more general of the State[/i">. The question today is therefore whether (i) it is necessary to wait for the success of the reforms of the State in order to ensure the performance of the public procurement system; or (ii) to adopt ad hoc approaches to reform parts sectors of the State which have impact on the performance of the public procurement system.
