DUSHANBE, April 28, Asia-Plus — The volume of public procurement of Tajikistan increases year out, Mr. Fayziddin Qahhorov, the head of Tajikistan’s Agency for Public Procurement, told reporters today during the Central Asia Regional Public Procurement Forum is being held in Dushanbe from April 28 to 30.
According to him, the agency last year assisted ministries and organizations with organizing tenders for procurement of goods and services for a total amount of 200 million somonis.
In the meantime, speaking at the forum, Deputy Economic Development and Trade Minister, Zuhriddin Kenjayev, said the public procurement law, which is now effective in the country, requires improvement.
This fourth regional procurement forum, sponsored by the World Bank, has brought together delegates from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan representing public procurement officials, civil society organizations, and international and bilateral donor agencies to discuss main issues in reforming public procurement in Central Asia countries and develop recommendations for further improvement of using public funds.
“Most Central Asian countries are now moving fast in reforming their public procurement legislative and regulatory framework and are entering the implementation stage which requires substantial resources for institutional strengthening and capacity building. The World Bank resources alone are not enough. There is need for all international and bilateral donors to help,” – said Ms. Chiara Bronchi, the World Bank Country Manager for Tajikistan.
Press release issued by the World Bank Dushanbe Office said that an efficient and effective public procurement system is one of the main driving forces behind a country’s development efforts and can contribute substantially towards strengthening its economy. On the other hand, a weak public procurement system will surely cause serious losses of public funds and adversely impact the country’s economy and development. Most countries spend about 10 to 15 per cent of their GDP on public procurement of goods, works and services. Given that each year billions of dollars are spent on public procurement, governments can realize substantial amounts of financial savings through the use of a transparent, fair, economic and efficient public procurement system.
The World Bank’s support to Central Asian countries in establishing sound public procurement systems started soon after their independence, through advice and grant based financial assistance. The first projects implemented in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan supported preparation of the draft public procurement laws, standard bidding documents, creation of specialized procurement agencies, and training of the public officials in procurement. A diagnostic tool called “country procurement assessment report” provided the governments with feedback on functioning of their public procurement systems and recommendations for future improvements.
Tajikistan took a commendable step in 1997 in introducing its first public procurement law, with the technical and financial support of the World Bank. The 1997 law provided for a partially decentralized public procurement system, and an oversight body. In 2002, the Government of Tajikistan and the World Bank, as part of the Government efforts to improve governance in the country, conducted a comprehensive assessment of the public procurement system in the country. Following upon the recommendations of the Country Procurement Assessment Report, and with the technical and more financial support in the form of a grant from the Institutional Development Fund (IDF) of the World Bank, a new law was drafted. The new law was approved by the Parliament in February 2006 and is now effective. This law provides for a full but gradual decentralization of the procurement responsibility to ministries, committees, oblast administrations, municipalities, etc., at all levels of government, and includes provisions for a transparent, fair, competitive and economic procurement, so essential for the efficient use of public funds.
The implementation of the new public procurement law would necessitate substantial amendments to subsidiary regulations dealing with the detailed rules for carrying out this law. Apart from these activities, the IDF grant supports strengthening of the Public Procurement Agency.
