Public Procurement Regulations Research Articles

Factors affecting the Rate of Disposal of Assets in Public Sector Organizations: A Case Study of Yatta Sub-County- Kenya

Disposal of unwanted assets is a critical element of stores and equipment management in any organization. When, for example, equipment is obsolete, continuing to keep it through maintenance, storage, parking, insurance, etc. may well exceed the returns that can be derived from the use of that equipment. Public entities in Kenya have specific disposal procedures and guidelines as provided for in the Public Procurement and Disposal Act, 2005 and Public Procurement and Disposal Regulations, 2006. This research project was a case study that sought to assess the factors affecting the rate of disposal of assets by the public sector organizations within Yatta Sub-County. A census was carried out on all the 28 Government Departments whereby 60 employees who were considered to have relevant information to the study were taken as the respondents. Questionnaires, interview guide and observation schedule were used to collect data. The study attained a 100% response rate. The findings of the study were that overall; the rate of disposal in public sector organizations in Yatta subcounty was low and that the process of procurement planning for disposal was reported as long and tedious.

Challenges of Public Procurement Audit a Perspective of Ashanti Regional Office of Ghana Audit Service

This study is an exploratory exercise to find out factors which hinder effective performance of public procurement audit. Knowledge of the challenges is of importance especially to public procurement entities, the Ghana Audit Service, and the Central Government. To the procurement entities, this study highlights procurement practices which serve as barriers to successful audits for remedial actions; the audit service will be aided by the findings of this study so that they can prepare adequately to conduct more successful audits knowing in advance challenges they are likely to encounter; to the Central Government, findings of this study provide relevant information for policy reforms and resource allocations. Staff of Ghana Audit Service in the Ashanti Region of Ghana provided responses to questionnaires on challenges of public procurement audit. The analysed data made available the following as the major findings of the study: poor documentation and improper record keeping; habitual violation of public procurement laws and regulations; incompetence of procurement and audit personnel; and inadequate supply of resources for the audit function.

The Effectiveness of Simple Homogeneous Commodity Procurement Under Rigid Govermental Regulation: The Case of Granulated Sugar Procurement in Russia

In the 2000s the Russian government considered electronic auctions (e-auctions) as the best way to procure goods for public needs. In this paper we confirm this proposition using an empirical dataset of contracts for the procurement of granulated sugar in Russia in 2011. Our data shows that unit prices are higher in the case of long-term contracts. This result can be explained by the rigidity of public procurement regulations as Russian legislation allows only fixed price contracts. Under these conditions suppliers can participate in public procurement tenders for long-term contracts only if their price includes a “risk premium” covering additional expenses of the supplier in case of an unfavorable turn in the market. Our analysis shows that sugar prices in Russian public procurement are lower for contracts with higher volume. These results are in the line with conclusions of previous studies of public procurement in other countries. The influence of competition measured by the number of suppliers participating in the procurement procedure has a quadratic form. It means that the effect of a new participant is lower when number of competitors is higher and vice versa. Our analysis also shows that there are essential distinctions in the influence of the same factors on contract prices for competitive procedures and void auctions.

Strengthening private certification systems through public regulation

Purpose– Private certification systems (PCS) have emerged as governance tools for sustainable development, regulating social and environmental standards through global supply chains. PCS are seen as essentially private and market-driven, but governments have engaged with them in various ways. There are also substantial differences in the institutional design of PCS with regard to the standard-setting process, ex-ante conformity assessment and ex-post verification procedures. Consequently, what determines the institutional design of PCS has attracted growing attention. This article argues that governments, through public regulation, influence the design of PCS, which in turn affects their effectiveness. The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approach– First, a review of academic literature, policy and legal documents presents how PCS have become institutionalized in government policy, focusing on sustainable public procurement (SPP) regulation. Second, the authors explore the link between effectiveness and the institutional design of PCS by empirically assessing the variations between institutional parameters conducive to effectiveness. Data from the Ecolabel Index database were used to assess the presence or absence of four institutional design parameters related to the rule-making and monitoring mechanisms of PCS.Findings– Public procurement regulations are important drivers influencing the institutional design of PCS. The buying power and market share of government spending is a potential tool for policy-makers not only to stimulate the adoption of PCS, but also for shaping their design and effectiveness. However, the impact of such policies is highly dependent upon the market-share of public procurement within a given sector. In addition to public procurement frameworks, other factors drive the institutional evolution of PCS.Originality/value– The article connects two themes within the study of non-state market regulation; the growing interaction of governments with PCS, and the institutional variety and development of these systems.

On the Scale and Welfare Costs of Procurement

This paper studies the design of procurement, where a buyer seeks to award a contract to a single supplier. The model incorporates the costs of bidding and the costs of evaluating proposals for the buyer. These information costs are a contribution to the literature and are weighted against the benefits of competition. Public procurement regulations entail that procurements should be organized on a large scale. The motivation is that larger markets promote competition, equity and reduce corruption. In contrast, this paper finds that large markets may be welfare decreasing. Firstly, the market size the procurer sets is too high when the bidder’s cost per proposal exceed the procurer’s cost per proposal. Secondly, the market size the procurer sets increases in the bidder’s cost.

Determinants of Non-Compliance of Public Procurement Regulations in Kenyan Secondary Schools.

Kenya’s public procurement and disposal Act of 2005 sets out clear rules and procedures for public procurement entities to follow; however this does not seem to be the case. This study sought to examine determinants of Non-compliance to the Public Procurement Regulations in Kenyan Secondary Schools. The study adopted a descriptive survey research. A sample of twelve (12) schools was utilized in this study from a population of thirty three (33) registered public secondary schools in Kitui Central District. The target population was the Public Secondary School Tendering Committees’ members; the suppliers and the principals of the twelve (12) Public Secondary Schools were adopted for this study. Stratified random sampling was adopted in this study. The tendering committees yielded 120 respondents, school principals were 12 and the total number of suppliers was 60. Structured self administered questionnaires, interview guides and document analysis were used in data collection. Findings in this study revealed that most respondents in this study were not familiar with the new procurement rules and regulations. There is need therefore for government and public institutions to lay emphasis on familiarization of the new procurement rules and regulations and to intensify continuous education among the procurement stakeholders in the public procurement process particularly at the secondary school level. Key words: Procurement, compliance, secondary schools, Kenya.

Public Procurement Regulations in Africa (Anne Schmidt)

VRÜ Verfassung und Recht in Übersee , Seite 349 - 351

Public procurement design: Lessons from the private sector

Public procurement regulations put constraints on the contracts and award mechanisms that public procurement agencies can use. These constraints are not present in the private sector, and recent studies suggest that the added flexibility in private sector procurement offers efficiency advantages. This paper offers a short progress report of these recent studies, and argues for the need to enhance the tools that are currently at the disposal of public sector procurement offices.

The pleasures and pitfalls of creating an image collection: quality and metadata issues

A recent project for JISC Collections – Digital Images for Education – involved acquiring 75,000 still and moving images for use by the UK education community. Creating an aggregated image collection from a wide range of vendors raised considerable logistic, quality and metadata challenges.Those challenges included the need to follow European public procurement regulations; the need to evaluate all the images provided by vendors; the consequences of adopting a common technical standard for describing the content and issues around how the various vendors adapted their disparate metadata and taxonomic standards for the purposes of the project.

Legal Analysis of the New Saudi Procurement Regulations

AbstractImproving procurement and developing better products and services have been priority aims for the Saudi government since the 1990s. In the late 1990s, the government began to introduce several economic and legislative changes with the intention of developing the public sector. Among the main aims of this approach were simplification and modernization of the Saudi public procurement regulations and opening up the competitiveness of the market place. This article explores public procurement regulations in Saudi Arabia and focuses in particular on analyzing the New Procurement Regulations and comparing the New with the Old Code.

Better Late Than Never: On the Implementation of the EU Public Procurement Directives 2004/17 and 2004/18 in Many Member States of the European Union

This contribution addresses the implementation of the Public Sector Procurement Directive 2004/18/EC and the Utilities Sector Procurement Directive 2004/17/EC in the 27 Member States. The term formal implementation is used since the discussion is limited to the questions whether and when the Member States formally attempted to respond to the requirements of the new Directives by introducing new national public procurement laws and regulations or by amending their existing legal frameworks. An analysis on whether the substantive contents of the new Directives were properly and fully implemented in the 27 national jurisdictions is not provided. In other words, this contribution does not discuss the substantive compatibility of the new public procurement laws of the Member States with the requirements of the new Directives.

God Forbid Bid-Riggers: Developments under the Hungarian Competition Act

In this article we would like to share the recent experience of the Hungarian Competition Office (GVH) with the international antitrust community. First, the relevant provisions of public procurement and competition regulations are presented. The reader will note that these are not uniquely Hungarian rules, but show remarkable similarities with corresponding legislation at EU and Member State level. Next, the characteristics of the Hungarian construction sector are set out?here again it might be noted that most EU Member States have similar market structures. Before analysing the competition issues at stake, the stories of the cases are presented. This article examines the following competition issues related to cartel activities: types of bid-rigging; the importance of market definition; the calculation of fines; and the functioning of the leniency programme. Finally, some of the procedural issues that amount to a significant part of the defence put forward by companies are scrutinised. The article concludes with a look into the future, highlighting some of the consequences of EU membership.

Project specific partnering

The scope of this paper covers the development of partnering since 1985. It starts with the early associations that were formed in the petrochemical and process industries between owners and contractors. This period was amply covered by a National Economic Development Office (NEDO) paper (NEDO 1991). Partnering at that stage was principally considered to be a relationship that lasted for a term and not a single contract. However, in the NEDO paper, there was brief mention of two projects being carried out by the US Army Corps of Engineers where the relationship was for individual contracts only. Since then the real growth of partnering in the USA has been on a project by project basis mainly within the public works sector, and this paper argues that this is the type of partnering arrangement that has the greatest potential. The application of partnering to the UK public works sector is affected by the EU public procurement regulations. As partnering on a project specific basis includes an element of price competition, the paper contends that there will be no difficulty in complying with the regulations. Using recent examples of partnering for specific projects in the USA, the paper concludes by making proposals for developing partnering arrangements in the UK public works sector. In the course of this, particular attention is drawn to the key elements of partnering associations in the USA that have contributed largely to their success.