Diagnosing Corruption in Ethiopia - Ethiomedia

266 Diagnosing Corruption in Ethiopia
of public procurement in Ethiopia and established its supervisory
agency, the PPA.
The agency has extensive powers to investigate suspected breaches of
public procurement procedures but due to capacity constraints tends to
be reactive rather than proactive in relation to suspected malpractice in
the construction sector. Most allegations investigated by the PPA involve
alleged failure to follow due process in the award of contracts. Some cases
are upheld, but most prove to have arisen as a result of a complainant’s
misunderstanding about the nature of competitive bidding.
The procurement directive sets out the details of good practice for
procurement based on competitive bidding, including the adoption of
internationally accepted tender procedures for externally funded contracts.
It also grants considerable powers to the minister in matters of
procurement and limits the direct award of some contracts. The 2005
directive is currently under review in response to both the experience
gained during implementation and the feedback received during a stakeholders
workshop organized by the Ministry of Finance and Economic
Development.
Construction Sector Transparency (CoST) Initiative. Ethiopia is one of
seven pilot countries for the Construction Sector Transparency (CoST)
initiative. 8 Launched in 2008, CoST commits participating countries to a
series of measures to improve transparency within the construction sector
through the disclosure of material project information about participating
projects. Such information would be designed to facilitate greater
accountability by disclosing, for instance, details of the applicable bid
evaluation procedures, contract value, works program, and cost overruns.
In each country, the initiative is overseen by a national multistakeholder
group (NMSG) comprising representatives from government, civil society,
professional bodies, and the construction sector. This NMSG in turn
appoints an independent “assurance team” of respected professionals
whose job is to interpret material project information and ensure that it
is not presented in a misleading manner.
One of the early results of the CoST pilot will be the establishment of
a baseline against which future changes in transparency within the sector
can be measured. In the medium to long term, it is also intended to assess
changes in accountability and performance within the sector, though
these will only be indirectly attributable to the initiative.
Ethiopia’s participation in the CoST pilot and the establishment of an
NMSG represents a potentially significant, though of itself insufficient,