Project Title: Assessing Public Procurement Legislations and Practice in 9 Countries: Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Kenya, Malawi, Indonesia, Philippines, Guatemala, Bolivia & Costa Rica

Donor Organization: Hivos

Total Grant Amount: 28,450 EUR

Project Number: 1017089

Project Start Date: September 2018 – May 2019

Project Summary

The project aims to assess Public Procurement Legislations (PPL) and their implementation in Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Kenya, Malawi, Indonesia, Philippines, Guatemala, Bolivia and Costa Rica with the use of the Transparent Public Procurement Rating (TPPR) Methodology to map the readiness of the target countries to adopt contemporary, modern and efficient public procurement systems, based on open data and the principle – “everybody sees everything”. The main goal of the project is to provide CSOs in target countries with the necessary tools for advocating changes in their respective public procurement systems.

Project Outline

Public procurement accounts for around one-fifth of global GDP. In the most high-income economies the purchase of works, goods and services accounts for a third of total public spending, making it especially important to manage the risk of corruption, collusion and other illegal practices in this area.

Without transparent public procurement systems, which are based on electronic means, are efficient and embrace open data, corruption may stay undetected from government authorities, watchdog organizations and the public. We believe that engaging in international collaboration between civil society organizations can create a stronger voice and better solutions to establish well-functioning public procurement systems.

Transparent and efficient public procurement systems also ensure citizens have equal access to public goods and services. For example, procurement systems of Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova or South Korea allow regular citizens to meaningfully engage in public resource allocation and monitor public expenditures.

Most countries in the Hivos “Open up Contracting” Portfolio have public procurement portals, however they lack contemporary elements, such as fully electronic procurement procedures built in the e-platforms; open data-based systems, which allow easy and fast access to procurement data; dispute settlement mechanism and its appropriate portal module, etc. These deficiencies are not only related to lack of technical expertise or financial resources in the country, but stem from incomplete legislative frameworks.

The main goal of the project is to map these deficiencies of public procurement legislative frameworks with the help of local partner CSOs in target countries, propose relevant legislative changes and assess whether the countries have the necessary legislative foundation to implement open, electronic and transparent public procurement system reforms. The project will create a mapping of public procurement systems in target countries and will provide an efficient advocacy tool for CSOs to change public procurement systems. Additionally, all target countries will become part of the TPPR Rating, an international rating of countries’ public procurement legislations. With the use of the rating, CSOs in target countries will have a comparative tool, with which it will be easy to compare their respective public procurement systems with those of other TPPR network countries (over 20 countries).

Project Activities:

Activity 1 – Identifying partner CSOs in target countries

Partner CSOs will be chosen in collaboration and upon recommendation from Hivos, based on the previous experiences that Hivos had with local CSOs. Partner CSOs will be trained and assisted in the particularities of the TPPR methodology upon final approval of their participation by Hivos.

Activity 2 – Assessment of public procurement legal framework in target countries

Partner CSOs will use the Transparent Public Procurement Rating (TPPR) Methodology to evaluate the public procurement legislations of their country. The methodology was created by IDFI in partnership with different international stakeholders such as the Open Contracting Partnership, the World Bank, EBRD experts.

The TPPR Methodology is a comprehensive methodology for assessing public procurement legislations with the ultimate goal of identifying the strengths and weaknesses of legal frameworks and their enforcement around the globe. More about the Methodology can be found here.

Activity 3 – Gathering public procurement data to identify what type of information is missing in target countries

Procurement related data will be gathered by IDFI and its partner organization in each country. The questionnaire for data gathering is already created and is a part of the TPPR methodology. The questionnaire provides a possibility to assess whether information necessary for public procurement performance analysis is available in the country. The data gathered will be comparable across all target countries and is a part of the research assessing the readiness of target countries to adopt contemporary, open data-based public procurement systems.

Activity 4 – Elaborating recommendations for the public procurement legal framework

Based on the legislative assessment, IDFI and each partner organization will create recommendations and a legislative package necessary for creating a solid foundation for open, transparent and efficient public procurement systems. The recommendations and the legislative package will be used as an advocacy tool to push for relevant changes in public procurement law of each target country. The legislative package will include TPPR best practices, as well as experience of more than 20 countries, which are part of the TPPR network.

Project Budget 

Planned Activities 

Contract