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Citi Perspectives for the Public Sector
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2015 – 2016
7
Developing practical solutions
While it is essential that governments sign up to
international anti-corruption agreements, these
can only serve to create a climate in which
corruption can be tackled at a practical level.
An important practical tool in rooting out
corruption is the implementation of transparent
procurement practices by governments at
national, regional and local levels. Fragmented
procurement creates greater opportunities
for corruption because policies and practices
are not standardized or enforced in the same
way. Furthermore, oversight and scrutiny tends
to be weaker in procurement systems where
decisions are taken at multiple levels.
Centralization of procurement promotes
integrity in public procurement by reducing
opportunities for corruption at lower levels of
agencies and by encouraging transparency,
control and accountability. It enables
governments to provide preferred treatment
for companies with appropriate anti-corruption
programs and establish high-level reporting
mechanisms to effectively address allegations
of improprieties during a procurement process.
Most importantly, it makes it significantly easier
to introduce consistent policies and enforce
them. By creating scale, it also facilitates
necessary investments in technology platforms.
Centralization of procurement must be realistic
if it is to be effective. Clearly, it is impossible
to centralize all procurement through a single
mechanism. Instead, procurement should
be centralized — for all segments — at a
particular level of government, so that all local
government procurement, for example, follows
similar practices and rules. What is critical is
that at each level of government a center of
excellence is created to ensure that standards
are adhered to.
An important practical tool
in rooting out corruption
is the implementation of
transparent procurement
by governments at national,
regional and local levels.
The role of e-procurement
By centralizing procurement, volumes
necessarily increase which helps to drive
scale and increase efficiencies. Moreover,
centralized procurement only works if
there are efficient systems and processes
in place to accelerate approvals and reduce
opportunities for corruption.