Today’s post is by Cobus de Swardt, Managing Director of Transparency International
Public procurement processes are one of the best examples of how citizens, governments and businesses can work together for mutual gain – or work at cross-purposes or the exclusion of one another for huge loss. It is big business. Around US$9.5 trillion of public money is spent each year by governments procuring goods and services for citizens.
Businesses, governments and citizens all stand to win from smart, efficient investments in infrastructure and public services. Projects that do not strip out mismanagement, fraud and corruption end up costly, wasteful, unsuitable, defective or even deadly as we saw in the collapse of the Rana Plaza complex in Bangladesh in 2013, a tragedy that led to hundreds of deaths of a largely female workforce.
When the products that citizens ultimately pay for are dangerous, inappropriate or costly there will be an inevitable loss of public confidence and trust in governments. Corrupted bidding processes also make a mockery of the level playing field for businesses, especially for younger, innovative companies eager to compete in a fair manner who may not have the backdoor contacts to buy contracts.