An effective and transparent public procurement system, underpinned by sound legislation, institutional structure and organisational capacity, is the cornerstone for any public expenditure management framework.
Public procurement accounts for over 50% of GDP in many developing countries and this figure can be considerably higher in countries where the private sector is small and the delivery of services is generally undertaken by the public sector.
The agenda for public procurement reform has been driven by a number of factors including the need to achieve value for money in the delivery of basic services as well as greater accountability to tax payers; the reduction of corruption and malpractice and also to deliver more effective aid.
Over the last 15 years, Crown Agents has supported numerous developing countries to reform their public procurement systems by providing the following services:
- Legislative framework - drafting and implementing procurement legislation, developing national standard bidding and contract documents for the procurement of goods and services and preparing desk manuals with instructions for procurement practitioners
- Institutional structure - organising procurement oversight bodies and management units and tender boards and preparing a human resources structure with management job descriptions
- Organisational and individual capacity - carrying out diagnostic reviews and capacity development action plans as well as implementing bespoke training modules including training of trainer programmes to meet specific capacity needs