About goPRS

Background

Public procurement is a crucial component of public services delivery, good governance, and sustainable economies with inclusive growth. Considering that the public procurement involves the expenditure of large sums of public money, and given its magnitude, can impact on the structure and functioning of competition in a market. More generally, it is critical to protect the integrity of the public procurement process, to maximise the resulting benefits for society and to protect competitive markets.  

Government procurement has substantial economic importance both nationally and internationally as they spend in public procurement around 12-20% of the country GDP. Therefore, the strengthening of public procurement system is essential to achieve concrete and sustainable results and to build effective institutions.

On the domestic front, through the procurement of goods, works and services from non-government suppliers, public bodies meet their obligation to provide essential services to their citizens.  Procurement systems have a significant impact on the efficient use of public funds and, more generally, on good governance and public confidence and support of government. Achieving economic efficiency, providing equitable opportunities for suppliers to compete for public contracts, and allowing public access to information on public procurement are all essential conditions of an effective procurement system.

Internationally through government procurement, the number of suppliers and contractors competing for a contract is increased thereby securing the best value for public money and improving the quality of the contract’s performance.  The availability of products, services, expertise and innovation to meet the needs of a nation and its citizens is enhanced. goPRS was developed to promote harmonization of international standards of public procurement. It considers the provisions of the UNCITRAL Model Law, the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement, the European Union directives (on government procurement and appeals procedures), the United Nations Convention against Corruption, the World Bank guidelines for procurement, the Integrity and Anti-corruption Initiative of the African Development Bank, as well as other internationally-accepted agreements and guides.