Compendium of Country Examples and Lessons Learned from ...

The Procurement Assessment Methodology:A Tool to Increase the Effectiveness of the Use of Public FundsIncreasing effectiveness, efficiency and transparency of public procurement systems is an on-goingconcern of governments and of the international development community. For public funding(including funds provided through official development assistance) to be use to the best effect, it isnecessary to have a national procurement system that meets international standards and that operatesas intended.The Methodology is intended to provide a common tool, which developing countries and donors canuse to assess the quality and effectiveness of national procurement systems. The understanding is that:The assessment will provide an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the system and abasis upon which a country can formulate a capacity development plan to improve itsprocurement system;Donors can use the common assessment to develop strategies for assisting the capacitydevelopment plan and to mitigate risks in the individual operations that they decide tofund; andIn the long term, countries will improve their national procurement systems to meetinternationally recognised standards enabling greater effectiveness in the use of funds tomeet country obligations.The Methodology‟s core objective is capacity development and progress is dependent upon countryownership and commitment to implement the capacity development programme. It was agreed withthe Joint Venture on Monitoring the Paris Declaration that the procurement baseline indicators wouldbe used to help monitor the qualitative procurement target of the Paris Declaration (Target 2b). 5The Methodology follows a two-step approach. Part I covers the baseline indicators (BLIs) that dealwith the formal and functional features of the existing system, while Part II covers thecompliance/performance indicators (CPIs) that deal with monitoring performance data to determinethe level of compliance with the formal system. The application of the BLIs is based on a review ofthe existing regulatory framework and the institutional and operational arrangements including themarketplace. The application of the CPIs relies on data obtained from a representative sample ofcontracts and information obtained from surveys or questionnaires with stakeholders of theprocurement system. Since data and information for the CPIs may not be available, the extent ofapplication of the CPIs is to be decided at the country level between the government and interesteddevelopment partners. A list of suggested compliance/performance indicators is given in Part II of the5Indicator 2, Reliable country systems: number of partner countries that have procurement and publicfinancial management systems that either a) adhere to broadly accepted good practices or b) have areform programme in place to achieve these. Target for 2(b) Procurement: one-third of partnercountries move up at least one measure (i.e. from D to C, C to B or B to A on the four-point scaleused to assess performance for this indicator).COMPENDIUM OF COUNTRY EXAMPLES AND LESSONS LEARNED […] - OECD 2008 11