Involvement of Non State Actors

in Monitoring of Procurement

Processes

Gilbert Sendugwa

Executive Director, Africa Freedom of Information Centre

Africa Senior Regional Manager

CoST Infrastructure Transparency

@GilbertSendugwa

@AFIC1

ABOUT AFIC

• A Pan African Organization

• Head quartered in Uganda

• 41 members from 23 countries

• Continental Open Contracting Working Group

• Host to the Uganda Contracts Monitoring Coalition

• Host to CoST Infrastructure Transparency Initiative

in Uganda

.

Government and citizens

can't see billions spent.

“…. explain to the

people projects

implemented with

funds from Central

Government…..”.

The Problem

.

900 million (US$500,000) paid for ghost stadium in 2005

BUSHENYI GHOST STADIUM

WHY OPEN CONTRACTING?

.

Too Many Problems in Public Contracting

.

2% savings on

procurement losses would enable

government increase teachers’

salaries by

15% and

address main problems in the

country’s health sector, Prime

Minister, 2012

Government Incentive Reforms

.

Good laws and

institutional

framework

but contracts

don’t perform

AFIC- Hivos Scoping Study

.

Data was being

disclosed but

wasn’t

accessible/

usable for

contract

monitoring

The Government Procurement Portal

https://gpp.ppda.go.ug/

Government redesigns GPP in OCDS formats

• PPDA implemented AFIC recommendations on

OCDS mapping, becoming the first and so far

only African country publishing procurement data

according to the OCDS

• GPP allows for publication of data at all levels of

stages of the procurement cycle

• More agencies registered on GPP

• Data has become available

• CSO monitor contracts

• CSO provide feedback to Government

Finding 1: Diversion- unplanned/unapproved

contracts

Finding 2: Potential abuse of uncompetitive

procurement methods

Finding 3: Collusion

Wining bid within 1% of estimated amounts

Notification of acceptance of contract have signed on the same date

Two separate contractors share same address

Finding 4: Supplier Fraud & collusion

Finding 5: Abandoned projects & High Failure Rate

Finding 6: Abandoned projects & High Failure Rate

“We were shocked being

called to pick seedlings to

plant in a dry season. Nobody

had an idea government was

bringing seedlings“

Farmer, Mulisa T.C,

Ntungamo

Finding 7: Unplanned supply of inputs

“A truck drove around calling

residents to go to the sub

county and pick seedlings. No

body had prior information of

the planned supply and no

gardens had been

prepared…..”

Supply dumped seedlings at

Kitojo and left

Finding 8: Ghost projects

.

OCDS PUBLISHED DATA

REVOLUTIONARISES AND

EMPOWERS CONTRACT MONITORING

•LARGE VOLUMES AND NUMBER OF CONTRACTS •NATIONAL SCOPE •SECTOR SCOPE •TRENDS ANALYSIS •RED FLAGGING •TIME AND COST SAVING •STRONG FOUNDATION FOR ON-SITE CONTRACT MONITORING

• Agency is not disclosing data?

• What takes the lions share of national budget?

• Average number of bidders per tender nationally and by PDE

• Contractors controlling market nationally and within a PDE

• Most procured items

• Items are bidders most interested in

• Proportion of contracts won by local firms nationally and by agency

• Long delays in contract negotiations or award

• Contract payments above the average market price

• Bid period shorter than 7 days

Our dashboards can with ease provide analysis

of data, for example:

What takes lion’s share of national budget?

What are bidders most interested in?

Who Controls the Market?

Same contractors keep

winning the biggest contracts

Local companies don’t win big contracts

Government implements recommendations

• Problems fixed, monitored contracts improve services for

local people

• Instances of fraud and falsification of documents reduced

in monitored districts

• Contract price being informed by design and scope rather

than source of budget

• Improved disclosure- more entities registered, data at

different stages of procurement cycle disclosed in

accessible formats

….Government implements recommendations

• Unplanned and unapproved contracts in monitored

districts eliminated

• Open bidding more favoured by monitored District Local

Governments

• More mix of contracts as opposed to before when

construction of toilets was dominant in monitored districts

• Community ownership of local projects increased

Increased Trust in the market

Government institutionalises CSO contract monitoring

On October 31, 2019

Minister of Finance,

Planning and Economic

Development launched a

national framework for

CSO monitoring of all

public contracts

Key Lessons and Conclusions

a) When citizens access information and engaged.

Ownership of projects is ensured

b) When provided with compelling evidence, government is

willing to take corrective measures.

c) Constructive engagement yields results and strong

partnerships between CSOs and Government

d) CSO cocreation of solutions with Government builds

trust & makes a big difference

e) Commitment by procurement oversight agency is critical

Key Factors for Success

• Accessible data on GPP

• Timely Access to Information

• Constructive engagement approaches

• Feedback to appropriate and relevant actors

• Capacity and competence of CSO monitors

• Cooperation and support of PPDA and

Ministry of Finance

• Technology and tools

• Government responsiveness

Recommendations

AFIC commends 11th EAPF for adopting resolution to implement open

contracting and PPDA for implementing it. We recommend:

1.Open contracting should be a norm in Africa. PPAs should champion

open contracting by advocating for it both nationally and regionally,

including solicitation for support from RECs and multilateral

institutions e.g. WB, AfDB.

2.Publish machine-readable, reusable open data on procurement and

beneficial ownership based Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS)

3.In collaboration with AFIC or other stakeholders, develop tools to

strengthen for analysis and use of disclosed data for monitoring

performance and risk of corruption

4.All PPAs should strengthen and actively promote meaningful

engagement of non state actors in monitoring of public contracting

e.g. monitoring framework developed by Uganda

5.All PPAs should actively invest in capacity strengthening of local

governments to deliver open contracting &VFM

Thank you!