Improving transparency and accountability of public spending in focus of regional OSCE-supported seminar in Vienna

VIENNA, 28 May 2015 - The role of improving public procurement procedures for economic development and combating corruption, as well as the recent trends in public procurement, are the focus of a two-day Regional Seminar on Enhancing Public Procurement Regulation which started today in Vienna.

Some 40 public procurement policy-makers from Armenia, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, the Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkey and Ukraine are taking part.

“Economic development and combating corruption are key prerequisites for stability and security,” said Alexey Stukalo, Deputy Co-ordinator/Head of Economic Activities at the Office of the Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities.

He noted that the public procurement sector is well-known for being fraught with corruption risks. “Public procurement activities should be based on the principles of integrity, transparency, competitiveness, accountability, credibility and cost-effectiveness. Promotion of such principles contributes significantly to achieving better terms for the delivery of goods, performance of works and supply of services.”

Michel Nussbaumer, Director of the Legal Transition Programme at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), said: “Public procurement represents an average of 28% of general government expenditure and 13% of GDP in member countries of the OECD (the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), so amounts at risk of corruption are very significant.”

Caroline Nicholas, Senior Legal Officer at the UN Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), said: “The revised UNCITRAL Model Law on Public Procurement promotes the ‘value for money’ principle in government spending, it pays special attention to ensuring transparency thereby supporting the fight against bribery and conflict of interest in procurement decisions.”

The seminar is co-organized by the Office of the Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities, the EBRD and UNCITRAL.