Civil Society Wants to Exercise Control over Public Procurement

Today the NGO to fight corruption, Transparency Azerbaijan organized a "round table" at which, with representatives of state purchasing organizations, they discussed the prospects for cooperation in government procurement in the format of the state - civil society.

Executive Director of the NGO Transparency Azerbaijan Rena Safaraliyeva said that the conclusion is proposed of a tripartite agreement (the state-business-NGO), which obliges the parties to comply with all aspects of the procurement procedures watched by civil society. On his support of this idea reported the EU program manager Olaf Heidelbach, according to which, the involvement of civil society can help to reduce the level of corruption in spending public funds.

The details of the agreement were told by the coordinator of the project "National Integrity System assessments" Mahammad Muradov. According to him, this practice is used in various countries and has led to a significant saving of public funds. For example, Pakistan's budget saved 15.8% in the construction project of water supply in the city of Karachi.

At the same time, civil society requires the use of the mechanism of e-procurement. In Georgia, for example, through the use of this method $ 200 million was saved.

The representative of  JSC Azersu (national water operator) said that the current legislation does not provide for the participation and control of civil society in public procurement. In addition, the budgets of state procurement organizations do not provide a means for the implementation of e-procurement, and there are no staff units of these organizations for the implementation of such purchases. ---08D