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Reforming Public Procurement -- Syquia
5. Building capacity and increasing the level of professionalism in the procurement
function.”
The oversight body should be established with a sufficient level of authority within the government
bureaucracy, so that it is able to exercise effective authority over procuring entities and tendering
committees with respect to decision-making, administrative review and, if needed, regulatory
functions.
Care should be taken, however, not to overburden this body with responsibilities beyond its core
purpose or the capacity of its staff resources. For instance, it is important to maintain the distinction
between policy and operational matters in defining the functions of the oversight body. Lao PDR’s
oversight body, the Procurement Monitoring Office (PrMO), encountered this very problem following
its establishment in 2004. The government’s new procurement decree, its implementing rules and the
PrMO’s founding charter detail the body’s responsibilities. Accordingly, the PrMO is not only
responsible for regulation and policy formulation, but also for operational matters such as review and
approval of tender modifications and bid evaluations. As a policy making body, attaching additional
operational responsibilities to the PrMO exposes the oversight body to potential conflicts.
Operational issues may also end up taking much of the oversight agency’s time and resources away
from its primary goal of policy development. xx
Certainly, an effective procurement system requires an active oversight body to ensure that all
procuring entities properly implement the law and all aspects of the country’s procurement reform
program. However, if the oversight body takes the form of a board and is appropriately composed of
high-ranking government officers, these officers should not be expected to perform technical work.
As such, there would be a need for an office that would not only function as the secretariat and
administrative corps of the oversight body, but would also provide it with much needed research and
technical capacity. In the Philippines, for example, the Government Procurement Policy Board
(GPPB) relies heavily on the legwork of its Technical Support Office (TSO), which performs the
following functions:
1. Research-based procurement policy recommendations and rule-drafting;
2. Evaluates the effectiveness of the government procurement system and procurement
reform program, and conducts studies to improve and develop the system, coverage
and procedures;
3. Monitors and ensures compliance by procuring entities with all procurement laws,
rules and regulations, and assists agencies in their procurement activities;
4. Professionalizes government procurement practitioners through the development and
implementation of regular nationwide procurement training programs and the
establishment of a procurement course and certificate program;
5. Develops and updates the generic procurement manuals and standard bidding
documents;
6. Monitors the implementation and effectiveness of the PhilGEPS e-procurement
system; and
7. Administrative and secretariat work.
6 Step Four: Capacity Building
Even if substantial efforts are undertaken during the initial advocacy stage to sell the reforms to, and
consult with, both top-level and mid-level champions, if no equivalent amount of effort is taken to
communicate these to the implementers in the field and train them on the new procedures, the overall
effort may fail. As the implementers of any procurement policy or process, the procurement
practitioners in each of the procuring agencies and local government units are really the “enablers” of
the reforms. Therefore, a well-functioning procurement system depends on how well these “enablers”
understand and apply the law.
Fiscal Reform and Economic Governance Project 14