Public Procurement Management Issues and Policy Recommendations: A Case from Pakistan

Abstract

The Public Procurement sector in Pakistan encompasses a substantial volume of resources including human, financial, and material along with services namely packing, transportation, storage, and distribution. The sector plays pivotal role in steering the country’s economy as well as its GDP. However, this intricate value chain is plagued by numerous associated inefficiencies. Public Procurement Regulatory Authority has been introduced more than two decades ago and has significantly harmonized the Public Procurement across different Public Sector organizations, yet there is plentiful to be done. The concept of traditional Public Procurement is deep rooted and still in vogue whereas copious other techniques are available to do the same. The fundamental role of Public Procurement as a policy driver cannot be flouted. Moreover, the practical intricacies faced by the public procurement professionals, being key stakeholders are ignored in policy formulation, which gives the impetus to undertake this study.

The research has been undertaken to assess the issues and challenges of the public procurement. Mixed method approach has been used to utilize the qualitative and quantitative techniques as per situation and requirement of the statement of the problem and research question. The responses have been collected from the procurement professionals only instead of random surveys. This selective participation ensured the receipt of best responses with useful insights. The identification of the factors or research instrument development has also been carried out through primary source. The situational analysis was in-depth and new extrapolations have been generated from the same.

As virtually, every government initiative or ongoing project / process, is related to the acquisition of goods, execution of works, or provision of services, and revolves around Public Procurement. Hence, it becomes imperative to augment the sector through meticulous renaissance and continuous refinements of the sector on an End-to-End Value Chain concept, in accordance with this research, outlined recommendations and international best practices. Transitioning from conventional procurement methods to an optimized, integrated, and effective Supply Chain Management system holds the potential for substantial cost savings. These savings in turn will result in provision of more funds for development programs, and support the low financial reserves.