DHAKAR: Citizens' monitoring of public procurement

THE planning minister's frank admission that graft gobbles up 40 to 50 per
cent of the public funds allocated against any procurement contract only
confirms the public perception on the issue. Since public procurement
involves about 70 per cent of the expenditures under the Annual
Development Programme (ADP), the amount of money involved in it is also
huge. Naturally, unless the rules of procurement are strict and foolproof,
one should not be too surprised if a significant sum of the money leaks
through into corrupt hands.

Reassuringly, the minister has informed that a Public-Private
Stakeholders' Committee (PPSC) has been instituted as a watchdog to ensure
transparency and accountability in the Public Procurement Act (PPA) and
thereby institutionalise social audit of public procurement.

This is certainly a good move to make the expenditure of the public money
in the procurement process answerable to the representatives of the
various stakeholders from the private and the public sectors.

However, the success of the PPSC in plugging the holes through which
corruption creeps in depends on how effectively it can oversee the
procurement process.

But recently, with a view to speeding up the procurement process some
provisions of the Public Procurement Act (PPA), 2006 have been amended.
The somewhat relaxed procurement regime has definitely thrown a fresh
challenge before PPSC or any monitoring mechanism for that matter meant to
ensure transparency in the purchasing procedure as it has by definition
become vulnerable to quarters seeking to gain from the slackened
procurement rules. By bringing public procurement activities within the
ambit of what it calls 'social auditing' through engaging citizens through
the PPSC, it is expected that accountability and transparency in the
procurement procedure could be ensured. The point is, being a new entity
itself it would have to go through a lot of self-assessment and evolution
before becoming efficient in delivering the goods.

The exalted motive behind creation of the watchdog body, PPSC, to involve
the private sector alongside the government to oversee public procurement
is commendable. Now, its modus operandi will have to be worked out
thoughtfully. It would have to devise a mechanism to ensure that it can
deliver while on the job of monitoring the performance of public
procurement activities.