Compendium of Country Examples and Lessons Learned from ...

Country experiencesMost of the pilot countries started with the Baseline Indicators and have begun to measure the CPIs asa second step. Application of the Methodology has indicated that both parts are needed to fully assessa national procurement system.Methods to arrive at the “right score”Pilot countries have emphasised that when conducting the BLI assessment, discussions ultimatelyfocused on the scoring. Sometimes members of the assessment team did not have the same amount ofinformation and consequently they arrived at different conclusions. In some cases, donors or otherstakeholders questioned the evidence or reliability of data in order to arrive at an agreement on thescoring based on evidence. The following country examples illustrate a number of approaches appliedto arrive at the “right score”. The examples can be grouped in three scenarios:Scenario 1 Pure self-assessmentScenario 2 Self-assessment with second independent scoringScenario 3 Joint government/donor assessmentScenario 1: Pure self-assessmentIn a “pure” self-assessment, the government itself - without involving development partners or otherstakeholders - does the scoring.Afghanistan and Sierra Leone, both post-conflict countries presently in a transition phase between theold procurement regime to a new national procurement system, have carried out self-assessments. TheWorld Bank supported the assessment in Afghanistan, and no other stakeholders were included in thescoring or validation process. Sierra Leone has reported that the interest and participation ofdevelopment partners has been „minimal‟ so far, although they have been invited to participate.Yemen, a non-pilot country, conducted a self-assessment focusing on four key ministries.Scenario 2: Self-assessment with second independent scoringA few countries such as Botswana, Mongolia, Uganda, Vietnam, Niger and Zambia have chosen atwo-step approach. Typically, one scoring was undertaken by the assessment team (self-assessment), asecond independent scoring was provided either by an external assessor or a group of stakeholders.Then, the assessment results were discussed in a workshop and usually consolidated by determiningthe average score for each sub-indicator.In Botswana, a comparative analysis was part of the scoring process. It was agreed during thevalidation workshop that the report should keep the two results separate (those from the workshop andthose from AfDB public procurement team) so as to compare them and draw conclusions from thetwo. In Vietnam, the initial scoring of the pilot assessment was done by an external assessor and thencompared with a second scoring done by 13 staff members of the Department of Public Procurement.COMPENDIUM OF COUNTRY EXAMPLES AND LESSONS LEARNED […] - OECD 2008 27