Supporting procurement reforms in Punjab
Public procurement systems are essential in facilitating government investments in infrastructure, health, education, and other public services. In developing countries, high rates of corruption and leakage may lower the efficiency of government procurement, potentially reducing the value generated by money spent.
Following on from a previous IGC-funded project "Motivating Bureaucrats: Autonomy vs Performance Pay for Public Procurement in Pakistan", this project aims to capitalise on this Project Policy Learning and Demand.
The backbone of the preceding research project was the Punjab Online Procurement System (POPS), an online system for gathering and managing information on small and medium-sized procurement purchases by government agencies. In collaboration with the Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB), the research team developed POPS, trained approximately 5,000 government officers in its use, and deployed it in most of Punjab's districts and four Line departments. The government now wants to mainstream this system by integrating it with other systems currently under development for larger purchases, scaling it up to the entire province and all departments, and developing a series of dashboards to present summaries of the data to senior officials. In this spirit, the Research Team is facilitating the integration and advising the reform process in the province.
