Everyone Sees Everything

1. Everyone Sees Everything e-Procurement in Georgia By David Marghania SPA, Istanbul 2014 dato@spa.ge

2. Why we reformed procurement system? Negative side of paper tenders in Georgia Lack of transparency Non-reliable data Failing procurement system Restricted competition Geographical inequality High compliance costs High risk of corruption

3. How we started? Our Office in 2010

4. Georgian Electronic Government Procurement System - Ge-GP

5. Some features of Ge-GP

6. Basic logic of Ge-GP

7. Some facts about Ge-GP • Two basic procurement methods – direct contracts and open tenders • Estimated value of contract is disclosed • Evaluation criteria is disclosed – criteria is objective and quantifiable • Risk based bid rigging methodology • Debarment system – black list – one year prohibition • Data is centralized – not the procurement/ decentralized 4298 CAs • Business Intelligence – online real-time reports – Interesting numbers; TI+SPA Tendermonitor.ge It is possible to track every transaction, every procuring officer, every supplier, to produce indicators, look for behavioral patterns, integrate with other systems, etc…

8. Number of e-Tenders by the price groups

9. Direct contracts VS e-Procurement 2013 Annual Procurement Budget 2 791 085 439 Gel

10. SuccessfulVS Unsuccessfule-Tenders

11. e-DRB module • Dispute Resolution Board was created on 10th of December, 2010 • Equal representation of public and state representatives in decision making • Everyone can “freeze” a tender with just a single click of a button. Submission of appeal takes less than two minutes • An appealed tender will be “frozen” for a period of 10 business days. During this period the eDRB will review the appeal and the results will be published in the Ge-GP

12. e-DRB module

13. e-DRB moduledynamics of complaints in 2012 and 2013

14. e-DRB moduleComplaints in 2013 by status Totally 393 Complaints

15. What they say about Ge-GP • “..most integrity safeguards and procurement efficiency instruments recommended by international best practice were adopted in Georgia in 2010” - EBRD • “The official electronic procurement system through which the government does its contracting is state of the art and among the most transparent and efficient systems in the world” – TI-Georgia • “The e-Procurement system implemented in Georgia may serve as a good example for Asia and other Pacific countries. The countries, which have not yet introduced the e-Procurement system, are particularly interested in the reforms implemented in Georgia” - ADB • “The European Parliament Welcomes Georgia’s new procurement system, Georgia should also serve as an example for the EU Member States in this area” – The European Parliament

16. Evaluation of Ge-GP

18. Challenges and problems • Lack of competences of all stakeholders • Elaboration of guidelines; Trainings for representatives of public and private sector; elaboration of recommendations derived from the empirical analysis. • Non-active CSOs • Extension of analytical work in the Agency, aggregation of information from previous tenders, make aggregated information accessible. • Absence of standardized description of goods and services, checklists, toolkits, etc. • Cooperation with private sector for elaboration of neutral product descriptions. • What is high quality? No agreed vision, Subjective perception; weak and nonsufficient national norms/standards; no-self regulating business associations

19. Challenges and problems • Overload of e-DRB • Number of appeals are increasing – resources should not remain the same. • Low Salaries of Procurement officers • The profession of procurement officer needs to be promoted and protected • Not enough analytics • Constant need of conducting in depth analyses of PP market, behavior of suppliers and contracting authorities

20. Main Findings • High quality . • Cheap • Fast Long time Expensive Utopia Low quality

21. Thank you for your attention! 28 Pekini Ave., Tbilisi 0160, Georgia e-mail: dato@spa.ge