REGINALD CHAPFUNGA
When money intended for a hospital, school, road or electricity project is lost through a manipulated public contract, the damage is not measured only in financial figures. It is felt by patients waiting for medicines, children missing school meals, businesses excluded from tenders and communities left without essential infrastructure.
That connection between public procurement and daily life is particularly important for African countries, where governments must meet extensive service-delivery needs with limited resources.
“Public procurement is a core government function involving enormous public resources and translating those resources into essential services and infrastructure, from schools and hospitals to roads, energy and digital infrastructure,” United Nations Development Programme Co-Director for Governance, Rule of Law and Peacebuilding Sarah Lister said.
Globally, public procurement represents an estimated 13 to 20 per cent of gross domestic product. In Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries, it accounts for about 30 per cent of government expenditure.
Its scale also makes procurement vulnerable to bribery, bid-rigging, conflicts of interest, cronyism and other abuses. Estimates cited by the World Bank suggest corruption may consume between 10 and 25 per cent of the value of a public contract.
“Strengthening procurement integrity is not simply a technical issue,” Lister said. “It is fundamental to effective governance, public trust and sustainable development.”
Public trust tested through contracts
President of the Italian National Anti-Corruption Authority Giuseppe Busia described procurement as part of the everyday infrastructure supporting the relationship between citizens and the state.
“Public procurement is where public trust is tested most directly,” Busia said. “When that spending is transparent, competitive and accountable, it becomes one of the most powerful tools we have to prevent corruption, deliver better value for public funds and strengthen citizens’ trust.”
He said unfair procurement discouraged honest companies from competing and cost society far more than the money involved in an individual contract.
This is particularly consequential where small businesses, women-led enterprises and local suppliers depend on public contracts for opportunities. A system perceived as favouring connected companies can reduce competition and leave governments paying more for poorer-quality goods and services.
Data reveals procurement risks
UNDP and the Government Transparency Institute have analysed procurement records to identify warning signs that perception-based corruption measures may not reveal.
Their preliminary global analysis covers 59 countries and about 74 million contracts, representing an estimated US$36 trillion in spending when adjusted for purchasing power.
UNDP Global Anti-Corruption Adviser Anga Timilsina said the analysis focused on five warning signs: non-open procedures, failure to publish tenders, contracts receiving only one bid, suppliers based in tax havens and modifications made after contracts were awarded.
The findings showed that 29 per cent of public contracts were awarded through non-open procedures, while about three in every 10 tenders received only one bid.
“These patterns may be signs of integrity violations such as bribery, bid-rigging and cronyism,” Timilsina said.
He cautioned that a warning sign was not proof of corruption. A single bid could result from a small supplier market, limited procurement capacity or laws permitting non-competitive purchasing in particular circumstances.
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Representative in New York Xiaohong Li said technology could help authorities analyse bidding patterns, compare prices and monitor contracts.
“Digital systems can help analyse bidding patterns, compare prices and monitor contracts, but they do not eliminate corruption risks by themselves,” Li said.
She added that reliable decisions still depended on complete information, transparent criteria, sound procurement processes and institutions capable of using the technology effectively.
Healthcare carries high risks
Construction accounts for the largest share of global procurement spending, followed by medical equipment, business services, information technology and healthcare.
UNDP’s analysis found healthcare had the highest prevalence of procurement warning signs, followed by information technology services. Red flags were also slightly more common among low-value contracts, which often receive less attention from auditors.
Open Contracting Partnership Director of Impact and Innovation Lindsay Marchesol said procurement data should be used not only to detect corruption but also to determine whether public purchases produced the intended results.
“You can’t manage what you can’t measure,” Marchesol said. “The ultimate objective of public procurement is to deliver public goods, works and services and the things that are going to help us achieve the SDGs.”
In Paraguay, procurement information is being used to track school meals by connecting what the government purchases with suppliers, prices and delivery to schools. Brazil is using procurement data and artificial intelligence to analyse medicine prices and purchasing patterns.
African reforms show results
In Tanzania, procurement warning indicators and efficiency dashboards, combined with outreach to businesses, tripled the number of suppliers receiving government contracts and reduced tendering times by 30 per cent.
“If you want honest companies, if you want women-led businesses and small businesses to participate in public procurement, then we need to show them that it is safe for them to be there,” Marchesol said.
Kenya has contributed to work developing nationally led corruption-measurement systems that bring together procurement authorities, statisticians, auditors, law-enforcement bodies, civil society and anti-corruption agencies.
Many countries, however, still rely on paper records, disconnected spreadsheets or digital platforms that do not publish complete, machine-readable information.
Marchesol said governments with limited digital infrastructure could begin with sampled records and offline methods instead of waiting for sophisticated electronic systems.
Lister said procurement reform should ultimately be judged by whether it strengthens public services.
“Success is not about how much data we produce,” she said, “but whether that evidence helps build more transparent, competitive and effective procurement systems and better public services.”
