Ideals of Public Procurement Reform
and Governance Challenges in Africa:
A Survey of Legislations and Practices
S.N. Nyeck, PhD
Assistant Professor of Political Science
Clarkson University, New York
[email protected]
[email protected]
Questions
 Do new public procurement regulations influence public women
friendly-policies in Africa?
 Can women-friendly acquisitions be strategically and positively
commodified within market-based solutions for financing
development?
What is the future of the “public”/the political in public procurement
schemes in Africa?
Perspectives on Development
Realism: Focuses on who gains more even if all gain some.
Development is not just about growth but also about the control
of resources.
Liberalism: specialization, competition, and the markets.
Development foster interdependence, which in turn fosters
cooperation and the building of international regulations and
institutions, from which all can gain.
Identity/Critical: political and social objectives (sustainable
growth, conservation of resources). Does development cultivate
NGOs, Human rights (especially for women), and democracy?
Does it contribute to human not just economic development,
better health, education, protection of life and property for the
least advantaged?
What Causes Development?
The Government or the Market?
Neo-classical view: Markets take center-stage in economic life and government plays
a minor role.
• Governments do best if they work with, rather than try to override, the forces of
the marketplace.
Revisionist view: “ worries about the redistribution of gains from development and
doubt that governments pursue policies that spread wealth unless they are confident
that the growth in wealth serves their existing interests and allies. Market forces may
enrich others, but they inevitably serve the objectives of those who already
possess wealth. Thus governments that start behind internationally or challenge
entrenched interests domestically have to override markets to ensure
development...Stresses government intervention to protect against or correct market
forces. Examples? Domestic subsidies, foreign aid, import substitution…etc.
New Global Governance (Finance)
The State is changing:
“The reengineering of public finance in response to the rebalancing of
market and states is well established worldwide, a process that has been
researched and documented. Contracting out, private solutions to
externalities, private financing of public sector projects, among others,
are making their way into public finance textbooks” (Kaul & Conceicao,
2013: 3).
New Actors:
“Contrary to what might still be a widely held view, government no longer
merely act as aggregators of national policy preferences and national
public policy is nested in global policy framework…Thinking about
public finance is reaching into the realm of foreign policy…And it is
transforming international cooperation from an essentially intergovernmental
process into a multiactor process” Kaul & Conceicao 2013: 4).
Mechanisms of Governance 1
Institutional
Environment
Shift
Parameters
Strategic
Governance
Behavioral
Attributes
Endogenous
Preferences
Individual
Mechanisms of governance (Williamson 1996, main effect are in solid arrows and
feedback in broken arrows)
What is public procurement?
The Private sector:
Government:
Produces works,
goods, and services
that the government
needs.
Public servants
produce and deliver
public works, goods,
and services.
Partnership, contract (formal/informal), expenditures
BOT (build, operate, transfer), privatization, concessions (long-term)
“ common proposition that the twin forces
of internationalization and globalization
are eroding state sovereignty is a clumsy
conceptual approach to the topic” (p.2056)
Sovereignty/Hierarchy:
hybrid, incomplete,
intermediary
“The ubiquity of governance-by-private-contractors
strikingly outstrips our legal and political
capabilities of oversight meant to ensure that the
contractor’s execution of these governmental functions
complies with democratic norms” (p.2)
The outsourcing of U.S.
government activities is far
greater than most people
realize, has been very
poorly managed, and has
inadvertently
militarized
American foreign policy.
Important trade-offs. A public
law critique the current state of
affairs
SOME EXAMPLES OF PUBLIC
PROCUREMENT PROJECTS
Public Procurement and
State
Formation/Organization
Leonardo da Vinci’s Profilo
di capitano antico, known
as Condottiero 1480
Simon Mann, (Left) led a group
of mercenaries in a failed coup
attempt in equatorial guinea in
2004
Provision of stability and
instability!!!!!!
Value of gifts expected to secure a government contract (% of contract value)
in Sub-Saharan Africa - Highest Group. Source: World Bank Enterprise
Survey.
Public Procurement & Scholarship on Africa
• Public Procurement and Regulations in Africa
(Quinot & Arrowsmith, 2013)
• Public Procurement Reforms in Africa: Challenges
in Institutions and Governance ( De Mariz , Menard,
and Abeille, 2014)
• Public Procurement and Mechanisms of Governance
in Africa: An Exploration of the Law-PoliticsBusiness-Matrix (Nyeck, 2016 upcoming)
• Civil servants, civil society, policymakers,
scholars.
• Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Botswana,
Uganda, Ethiopia, interdisciplinary,
multidisciplinary.
Mechanisms of Governance 2
Institutional
Environment
Shift
Parameters
Strategic
Governance
Behavioral
Attributes
Endogenous
Preferences
Individual
Mechanisms of governance (Williamson 1996, main effect are in solid arrows and
feedback in broken arrows)
Women and the States
What accounts for the worldwide emergence of state
behavior that expressly target women?
 Women’s suffrage / Waves
 National machinery (formalized
public policy & implementation)/
Swift; random geographical
distribution
 Sex quotas (in legislatures)/ out of
Latin America then elsewhere
Norms:
 Homogenize states: “ victory of the state as
the predominant polity, but also the
individualization of humanity” (p.5)
 Heterogenize states (raking sets up relations
of hierarchy): “states practices towards
women have been and continue to be
important standards of rank across the world”
(p.9)
Questions Revised
 Do new public procurement regulations influence public
women friendly-policies in Africa? What are African states
bidding for/against?
 Can women-friendly acquisitions be strategically and
positively commodified within market-based solutions for
financing development? What is the role of transnational
economic institutions in this process?
Public Procurement in Africa: General Trends
N= 23,000
Data source: African Development Bank
Public Procurement in Africa:
General Trends (continued)
N= 23,000
Data source: African Development Bank
Public Procurement in Africa:
General Trends (continued)
N= 23,000
Data source: African Development Bank
Source: OECD, 2003
Country
WBCAR
Status of
Women
New PP Law
Status of Women (preferential?)
Nigeria
2000
NO
2007
NO
Uganda
2004
NO
2003 (supp. 2006),
Local Govt. Act (2001) : At least one
tender board member ought to be a
woman/ person with disability.
Kenya
2005
NO
PPDA (2007)
(2014 amendment)
Section 39 (4): Preferences and
reservations apply to, candidates such as
disadvantage groups, micro, small, and
medium enterprises”
subsidiary legislation
(No. 114, 2013)
Amendment
32 “enterprise owned by youth (10%),
women or persons with disability”
Sierra Leone
1997
NO
2009-013
NONE
Cameroon
2005
NO
2004
NONE
South Africa
2003
NO
Cons. 217 (2)
Inclusion of SMMEs owned by historically
disadvantaged individuals (blacks,
women, youth, disabled people and rural
dwellers)
1996-1997
Source: CNRS
(2001)
Thank you