Public Procurement

Public procurement is a widely studied topic. The scholars have mainly concentrated on the use of technology and innovation in public procurement. Another topic that has been widely researched is the challenges of public procurement and how they can be combated. On the other hand, various aspects of procurement remain widely uninvestigated. This paper reviews the way the topic of procurement has been studied and investigates what should be researched further.

According to Calendar and McGuire (2012), demand changes as the nature of public procurement changes. This is especially difficult for the public procurement system because the resources of training and education for the personnel are limited. Calendar and McGuire (2012) review the changes that have been experienced in the public sector over a period of ten years. They also review the challenges that are met by public procurement personnel and how the responses to these challenges have been. Of specific importance, are professional institutions which are charged with the role of providing training in both procurement and purchasing in a bid to harmonize the divergent nature of education and training in the public procurement sector. Further, they provide a series of cases with different challenges and show how these challenges could be resolved by such bodies.

One challenge that has been met by public procurement teams is the change of language. While public procurement has changed a lot, the institutions have remained unchanged. New personnel have therefore had to meet with the challenge of understanding the new language of procurement from experience. Along with this challenge has been the difficulty of time wastage and mistakes that would have been avoided. If the professional institutions would be more proactive in providing better information to their cents, then this problem could be resolved.

A second challenge according to Calendar and McGuire (2012) has been the demands that are placed on the public procurement managers. Of specific importance in this regard is the amount and nature of education and skills that these managers are expected to possess. They are expected to handle roles that would otherwise be allocated to various departments in an organization or government system or project. Again, this is a challenge that could be resolved by providing a diverse level of knowledge to such personnel.

Further, Calendar and McGuire (2012) argue that there has been the adoption of cost savings in the procurement sector in most public sectors. In contrast, little education has been offered in this regard. There should be more education in regard to offering more information about the IT systems that are used in this regard. Demand is a potential basis of innovation, yet the critical function of demand as a drive to innovativeness is yet to be recognized in the government policies.

Edler and Georghiou (2007) argue that if public demand is directed to provide innovative products and solutions, then the potential of delivery of public policies and services would be improved and this would raise innovative benefits and dynamics associated from wastage of public resource. Edler and Georghiou (2007) add that public procurement as an innovative policy has over the years been downplayed and neglected. Procurement policy is a very efficient instrument that can be used to stimulate innovation. An analysis of Stafinno data base which collected innovations that were commercialized in the years between 1984 and 1998 showed that 48% of projects that had successful innovations did so as a result of public procurement or regulation.

Most nations in Southeast Asia have over the present years experienced an economic growth that is noticeable even though its impact and extent on the living standards is varied across the region. Jones (2007) argued that all those clear signs of improvement in economic performance and the progress in alleviation of poverty, in order to be sustained depend on the continuous improvements of public governance. This can be achieved by creating accountable and more competent government administration that has reduced inefficiency, wastes, corruption and secrecy. Jones (2007) stated that high standards of public governance would be an efficient and well developed system of government procurement that provides a value for money. He also stated that serious weaknesses in those areas were as a result of poor public procurement.

According to Mahmoud (2010), the concept of corruption in public procurement has not been satisfactorily studied. While a lot policies have been created to govern how it can be resolved, these policies are not guided by research. While the policies have been partially effective in resolving the corruption, they have a lot to be desired. Areas that need more attention in public procurement include nondisclosure of selection process, bidding periods, specifications, the quality of advertisements, contract awards by lottery and short contract documents that are often one sided. All these areas have offered loopholes for corruption and other unethical practices in public procurement.

While a lot of these researches have been consistent, they have left little research in all the fields. Researchers have used both qualitative and quantitative research in the study of public procurement. The research conclusions have been as divergent as the studies themselves. While studies in procurement have identified education as the best direction for eliminating challenges faced by procurement personnel, other options like better policies and advanced technology are identified for handling other issues in public procurement.

Scholars have constantly studied public procurement and most of them identify the problems that are associated with it. Jones (2007) argued that one of the impediments to the achievement of effective public procurement in some nations has been ambiguities and limited scope of laws, implementing regulations and procedures. This has led to confusion, inconsistency and lack of accountability. Some nations have taken initiatives by developing legal and administrative frameworks that creates greater coherence in the process of procurement. This clearly defines the processes and the criteria to be adopted, the responsibilities and roles of procurement bodies and officials. In other cases, the framework establishes a more transparent and competitive system of public procurement that is more accountable.

According to Thai et al. (2001) market conditions have greatly influenced the efforts of public procurement practitioners’ to maximize competition. He argues that the market determines whether or not the socio-economic objectives of procurement have been accomplished, whether a government entity is able to fulfill its needs; timeliness in fulfillment; as well as costs and quality of purchased goods, capital assets and services. Public procurement practitioners even face a much greater challenge as markets become more globalized through the regional and international trade treaties and agreements. More of the challenges that they face are in compliance with the international trade requirements and governments’ procurement policies and laws.

 Walker and Brammer (2009) stated that public procurement also faces the challenges of currency exchange payments and rates, lead-time, foreign government regulations, transportation, communication, customs regulations and trade agreements. They thus advised that before anyone embarks on a foreign purchasing program, the public procurement practitioner must assess all cost implications carefully and compare them with the domestic costs. The practitioners are thus torn between the free trade agreements and the economic developments policies in their countries as they decide on whether to select the foreign or domestic firms.

Scholars have also come up with similar arguments on the issue that public procurement is also largely influenced by the political environment. Thai (2001) argues that in any democratic society, various organizations, groups, trade associations, business firms and professional associations participate in the procurement process. In such democratic environments, a strong coalition between bureaucrats, interest groups and policy makers, public procurement is likely to succeed. Edler and Georghiou (2007) argued that various organizations have varied objectives, interests and beliefs which make them involved in public procurement system in various ways such as lobbying legislative bodies so that they alter or pass procurement statutes, which can be implemented thereby influencing budget authorization processes.

There is a gap in the study of procurement especially in regard to the relationship between innovation and technology with the challenges in the industry. In this case, the studies have not identified ways that technology can be used to resolve some of the major challenges in the industry. In contrast, technology has itself been identified as a challenge. With proper approach, technology can be used in resolving most of the issues identified in regard to procurement. Where information is required, technology can be used to provide self-help programs that can be used in the industry.

Furthermore, technology can be integrated into the procurement process to identify corruption issues in the sector before the problem becomes far rooted in any department. To integrate this into the sector, a lot of innovation must be integrated into the system. In that case, public procurement technology needs to be outsourced in a manner that is similar to what is already in use in the most public systems. The use of government policies has been widely researched in the industry.

If this study is done, it could offer more insight into the field of public procurement and offer a course of direction. In regard to resolving corruption problems, technology could be a more reliable option compared to self-reporting or any other option. Technology would also be counted upon to deliver the rightful information at the right time and only to the right people.

In essence, technology has offered solutions in almost every industry in some way. If exploited, technology could offer insight in the same way in the field of public procurement. Examples of technologies that could be used in the industry include accounting systems, security systems and payment systems. Integrating all these may call for some innovation in the field of public procurement. Since this is a new idea, the new requirements would call for public technology procurement.

The investments that would be required in the field of procurement are worthwhile for various reasons. First, the losses incurred in the challenges being handled are extreme and often abnormal. They are also a continuous problem and would require more permanent solution. Innovation would also serve to handle the changing nature of the problems facing the field of public procurement.

The variables in this case are easily related. It is possible to relate innovation and technology with each of the challenges facing the field of public procurement. The lack of information is easy to resolve using both inn ovation and technology. The corruption issues can both be assessed and checked using technology in the form of security technology and accounting technologies if they are integrated into the public procurement systems. If this is done, the problems in the systems would be identified early and fast response made. If most problems in the field of public procurement are identified fast, the problems would be more easily and permanently resolved.

Research question

In this research, the capacity of innovation and technology and technology in resolving the problems facing the field of public procurement will be studied. The study will identify the use of technology in the field of public procurement and the way that these technologies could be improved to resolve more issues. In this regard, the research seeks to answer various questions. First, is the technology already being used in the field of public procurement exploited maximally? If the field of public procurement has lagged behind in the use of already available technology, then it is unlikely that any other technology being introduced in the sector will be adopted readily. Much less is the likelihood that technology that seeks to nab corrupt officers will get a lot of support.

Second, has technology been used in other fields to resolve similar challenges. If the technology in question has been used in other fields, then it may only require little alterations to resolve. Thirdly, has the technology (if it has been used before) been effective in the past? Finally are there ways that policy makers can intervene to increase the effectiveness of the program?

Conclusion

In conclusion, the field of public procurement remains widely under-researched. There have been various studies that have been done on the fields of technology, innovation and challenges. However, these three variables have not been combined to improve the chances of the industry. This study seeks to identify ways that the use of technology can help to resolve the problems in the field.

References

Edler, J., & Georghiou, L. (2007). Public procurement and
innovation—Resurrecting the demand side. Research policy, 36(7),
949-963. Available at:
http://dimetic.dime-eu.org/dimetic_files/EdlerGeorghiou2007.pdf

Jones, D, S., (2007). Public procurement in Southeast Asia: Challenges and reform. Journal of public procurement, 7(1), 3-33. Available at:
http://ippa.ws/IPPC2/JOPP7_1/Article_1_JONES.pdf

Knight, L., Harland, C., Telgen, J., Thai, K. V., Callender, G., & McKen, K. (Eds.). (2012). Public procurement: International cases and commentary. Routledge.

Mahmood, S. A. I. (2010). Public procurement and corruption in Bangladesh confronting the challenges and opportunities. Journal of public administration and policy research, 2(6), 103-111.

Walker, H., & Brammer, S. (2009). Sustainable procurement in the
United Kingdom public sector. Supply Chain Management: An
International Journal, 14(2), 128-137. Available at:
http://www.mubs.ac.ug/procdocs/Procurement%20Ethics%202/Public%20procurement%20Articles/ppe.pdf