Public procurement: Experts, donors for transparency, streamlined regulations

Development experts, government officials and donor agencies called for steps to streamline regulations and standards in all provinces and establish accountable, transparent and effective public procurement systems, said a press release issued by the USAID here on Thursday.

The consultation workshop was organised by the USAID-funded Assessment and Strengthening Programme (ASP-RSPN), as a preliminary initiative to solicit the consensus of government and development partners for strengthening the provincial authorities.

The five-year programme aims to streamline the public procurement regulations, guidelines and standards in all provinces, as per best international practice. This activity will address the underlying bottlenecks in the organizational capacity of public sector management.

The programme is also focusing on supporting the government efforts to ensure accountability, transparency and good governance.

“We strongly believe that taking up the confidence of all the stakeholders bringing them on the same page will prove beneficial in establishing the effective and dynamic public procurement regulations authorities (PPRAs) and would be fruitful in achieving the transparency, accountability and effectiveness in the organizations,” said USAID Pakistan Deputy Mission Director Karen Freeman.

She hoped that the engagement will directly and indirectly help the USAID and other development partners and their programmes in energy, economic growth, education, health, agriculture sectors in efficient, transparent and effective use of available resources.

PPRA Managing Director Mahmood Lodhi underscored the steps taken by the Federal Government in streamlining public procurements and referred to PPRA’s achievements since establishment. “PPRA was established to build and strengthen government capacity to develop a modern, public procurement system in the country”, he said.

Shiraz Ashraf, from USAID, emphasized the importance of ownership of USAID assistance by public sector and declared the workshop a step in that direction. He further said that the consultation process proved very productive which will provide the roadmap in carrying out future interventions/ provision of assistance in strengthening PPRAs.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 21^st, 2012.