Labels and Tags

Accountability (71) Adequate documentation (7) ADR in procurement (4) Allocation of risks (6) Best interest of government (11) Best practices (19) Best value (15) Bidder prejudice (11) Blanket purchase agreement (1) Bridge contract (2) Bundling (6) Cancellation and rejection (2) Centralized procurement structure (12) Changes during bid process (14) Clarifications vs Discussions (1) Competence (9) Competition vs Efficiency (29) Competitive position (3) Compliance (35) Conflict of interest (32) Contract administration (26) Contract disputes (4) Contract extension or modification (9) Contract formation (1) Contract interpretation (1) Contract terms (3) Contract types (6) Contract vs solicitation dispute (2) Contractor responsibility (20) Conviction (4) Cooperative purchasing (3) Corrective action (1) Cost and pricing (13) Debarment (4) Determinations (8) Determining responsibility (37) Disclosure requirements (7) Discussions during solicitation (10) Disposal of surplus property (3) Effective enforcement requirement (35) Effective procurement management (5) Effective specifications (36) Emergency procurement (14) eProcurement (5) Equitable tolling (2) Evaluation of submissions (22) Fair and equitable treatment (14) Fair and reasonable value (23) Fiscal effect of procurement (14) Frivolous protest (1) Good governance (12) Governmental functions (27) Guam (14) Guam procurement law (12) Improper influence (11) Incumbency (13) Integrity of system (31) Interested party (7) Jurisdiction (1) Justification (1) Life-cycle cost (1) Limits of government contracting (5) Lore vs Law (4) market research (7) Materiality (3) Methods of source selection (33) Mistakes (4) Models of Procurement (1) Needs assessment (11) No harm no foul? (8) Offer & acceptance (1) Other procurement links (14) Outsourcing (34) Past performance (12) Planning policy (34) Politics of procurement (52) PPPs (6) Prequalification (1) Principle of competition (95) Principles of procurement (25) Private vs public contract (17) Procurement authority (5) Procurement controversies series (79) Procurement ethics (19) Procurement fraud (31) Procurement lifecycle (9) Procurement philosophy (17) Procurement procedures (30) Procurement reform (63) Procurement theory (11) Procurement workforce (2) Procurment philosophy (6) Professionalism (17) Protest - formality (2) Protest - timing (12) Protests - general (37) Purposes and policies of procurement (11) Recusal (1) Remedies (17) Requirement for new procurement (4) Resolution of protests (4) Responsiveness (14) Restrictive specifications (5) Review procedures (13) RFQ vs RFP (1) Scope of contract (16) Settlement (2) Social preference provisions (60) Sole source (48) Sovereign immunity (3) Staffing (8) Standard commercial products (3) Standards of review (2) Standing (6) Stays and injunctions (6) Structure of procurement (1) Substantiation (9) Surety (1) Suspension (6) The procurement record (1) The role of price (10) The subject matter of procurement (23) Trade agreements vs procurement (1) Training (33) Transparency (63) Uniformity (6) Unsolicited proposals (3)

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Transparency initiative in Malaysia

Government portal to make tenders more transparent and curb corruption
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak this morning launched the MyPROCUREMENT portal, the government's procurement information center here.

In his speech, Najib said the portal was created as a mechanism to step up transparency in the procurement system and will become the main medium for spreading government information to the public.

The portal was developed to help curb corruption

With the implementation of decentralisation where ministries are given power to manage their own procurements, the portal will plays a role in gathering information from all the ministries.

In the first phase, the portal will publish advertisement lists, tender results and other procurement-related information, such as rules, tendering process and company registration system.

The portal will display a list of tender advertisements and latest tender results for all ministries uploaded from the agencies' websites every hour.

For starters, the portal will display the list of tender advertisements and results of all ministries from last June. Tender advertisements will be displayed from its start to end dates while results will be displayed up to 14 days after the "Surat Setuju Terima" is issued to the successful bidder.

The portal will also display procurement-related information such as government procurement policies and principles, procurement rules, company registration, Integrity Pact, frequently asked questions and a government tender archive. It can be accessed via http://myprocurement.treasury.gov.my.

Centre for Public Policy Studies chairman Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam said, the announcement will boost confidence in foreign and also domestic investments. Malaysian contractors especially will be able to gain more on the basis of open tenders and meritocracy.

"Even if they lost, the contractors will have a fair view of who the tenders were awarded to and the basis of why and how it was awarded," he said.

Ramon said that ultimately, this will result in considerable savings to the government which helps to reduce its serious and growing budget deficits.

Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) president Datuk Paul Low said the process of how government contracts are being awarded has to be done in an objective manner to enable those applying for the tender to compete on equal grounds.

"The information published must be very clear on the details of the award so that everyone is able to see the disclosure on the reasons for making the award. Once this is done, it removes the opaqueness of decision making in government procurement and eliminates corruption," he said.

However, he said that sometimes this may not be enough if the infrastructure, which consists of the awarding committee and the evaluating committee, is not headed by individuals who are professional, objective and of high integrity.

"The process of awarding contracts itself has to be very open and conducted professionally," said Low.

No comments: