Public Procurement Reform for Ease in Doing Business
| DOI | 10.1177/0019556119829578 |
| Author | Bulbul Sen |
| Published date | 01 March 2019 |
| Date | 01 March 2019 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Indian Journal of Public
Administration
65(1) 45–52, 2019
© 2019 IIPA
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DOI: 10.1177/0019556119829578
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1 CUTS Institute for Regulation & Competition (CIRC), New Delhi, India.
Corresponding author:
Bulbul Sen, CUTS Institute for Regulation & Competition (CIRC), 1A, First Floor, Khehar Singh
Estate, Saidulajab, New Delhi 110030, India.
E-mail: bsensarkar@gmail.com
Public Procurement
Reform for Ease in
Doing Business
Bulbul Sen1
Abstract
Public procurement is one area needing governmental reforms. It is largely
governed by dated rules that businesses feel are not able to encompass the
complex needs of a modernising Indian economy. They also feel that there
is a plethora of public contract rules often not in harmony with each other
creating confusion and giving opportunity for corruption. However, the Modi
regime’s anti-corruption mandate should not stifle business initiative that is the
main critique against the Public Procurement Bill (2012). An amended public
procurement law should inter alia be comprehensive in its coverage. It should
incorporate new forms of tendering to cover complex procurement situations,
maintain balance between the cost and the quality in tender awards, check abuse
of monopoly in single-source procurement, prevent ‘digital divide’ in transparency
provisions, maintain balance between external openness and promotion of
domestic economy in market access provisions, encourage sustainable public
procurement, incorporate effective mechanisms for redressing grievances of
bidders and avoid penal provisions punishing offences covered by existing laws.
Regulatory reform in public procurement will have substantial economic impact,
as government contracts annually average approximately 30 per cent of India’s
GDP and cover almost every sphere of government activity. Hence, such a reform
will improve India’s anti-corruption/ease of doing business global rankings.
Keywords
Fostering competition, promoting transparency, appropriate grievance redress,
promoting probity, environmentally sustainable public procurement
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