Fairness and transparency are key to successful and accountable procurement. Buyers, suppliers and stakeholders all need to have faith in the process. Corruption at government level has been all too common in the past, but there are many initiatives to clean up public procurement.

Measures aimed at both preventing bribery, redirection of public funds and other forms of corruption – as well as punishing cases of corruption – are being implemented, strengthened and expedited across the globe. In this blog, we round-up some of the latest news on tackling public procurement corruption.

China

January saw China’s government announce new procurement regulations to increase public scrutiny of awarded contracts, create review committees, and escalate punishments for wrongdoing. State-owned news agency Xinhua stressed the importance of these measures to ensure clean governance and the subsequent growth in the public’s trust. It also recognised the added benefits of efficiency that the adoption of robust procurement processes can bring.

Thailand

A draft bill relating to government procurement has also been drawn up in Thailand. Under the bill, penalties for misconduct would be doubled from existing levels. Perceptions of Thailand’s financial integrity are already improving – Transparency International ranking the country 85th out of 175 in its ‘Corruption Perceptions Index’, a marked improvement on previous years.

India

In India, corruption laws that were limited to illegal monetary gain, and that were vague regarding the definition of abuse of official position, have been updated. Not only have sections of the Prevention of Corruption Bill become more explicit, the extent of punishments imposed upon prosecuted public servants has been increased. These changes are particularly pertinent given prosecutions against India’s former prime minister.

Romania

Historically rife with corruption and bribery in public procurement, studies suggest Romania is making progress in combatting the problem. In this instance, international relations are at stake as Romania seeks to improve its perception globally to protect itself befalling the same fate as its neighbour Ukraine.

Indonesia

Indonesian President Joko Widido was even more specific recently regarding the role that eProcurement can play in stamping out fraudulent activity. Reiterating his view that “Building a good and effective system, I believe, will help reduce corruption”, he went on to pinpoint the adoption of an integrated online system for governmental budgeting, procurement and purchasing as key to strengthening monitoring and improving accountability.

“Jokowi” went on to suggest eProcurement could provide a huge 30% saving, equivalent to $60 billion, if all central and local governmental bodies implemented comprehensive systems.

Transparency breeds trust. Trust breeds credibility

The cost-saving, process-streamlining and consistency-improving benefits eProcurement can bring have become increasingly clear. But along with these advantages comes the improved credibility that the ability to maintain spend visibility can bring.

Comprehensive eProcurement systems offer a chance to not only provide a level playing field for bidders, but a clear window into the process for the public. In this way, the choice of public sector procurement processes can bring accountability – and credibility – to governments worldwide.