BULAWAYO - Forty-five African countries together with bilateral and multilateral development institutions have agreed to strengthen, pursue and improve reforms of existing public procurement systems.According to latest Comesa report, the countries have also agreed to focus on institutional capacity building in public procurement of all players and on systems of integrity. This is in order to strengthen good governance and public finance performance, and thereby achieve better quality of services for the population.
This agreement was made at the end of the two-day High Level Forum on Public Procurement Reforms in Africa held in Tunis, Tunisia, from November 16 to 17, 2009.
The Forum was organised by the African Development Bank in partnership with COMESA, the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF), the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) and the World Bank (WB).
Zimbabwe’s Minister of Regional Integration and International Cooperation Mrs. Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga represented the Chair of the COMESA Council of Ministers at the Forum.
The Forum has since issued the Tunis Declaration on Public Pro procurement by all stakeholders and enhanced the business environment in order to promote access by local small and medium size enterprises.
At the same forum, the civil society resolved to contribute to the enhancement and effectiveness of public expenditure by maintaining proactive surveillance on efforts to fight against fraud and corruption.
On its part, the African Development Bank agreed to support reforms and set up effective funding mechanisms and establish joint performance assessment tools for monitoring public procurement national systems.
The bank will also support the implementation of second generation reforms through modernization of public procurement systems under the global framework of socio-economic and financial reforms of States.
Post published in: Zimbabwe News