IGC aims at boosting public procurement

KARACHI – The International Growth Center (IGC) is implementing a research project on improving the efficiency of public procurement in Sindh and for this purpose a research team of the center will visit the Governors Secretariat, shortly.
The research team of the IGC comprising Farooq Mansoori and Amar Sham Khanghrani will be visiting the secretariat to gather relevant data, as the success of their research project is predicated upon the availability of credible data in the case of procurement undertaken by the procuring agencies during the last three years. According to a letter to the Principal Secretary to Governor Sindh written by Sindh Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (SPPRA) Managing Director Rizwan Ahmed, on February 28, 2011, the government of Sindh has apparently agreed to support the IGC research initiative.
The proposed research aims at analysing procurement patterns of a sample of public and semi-public bodies in Sindh Province (selected through random sampling by the IGC) to provide evidence to on their relative efficiency and to generate suggestions for public procurement, the letter stated. It also stated that the outcome of the research will be shared with the government of Sindh in the form of analysis and policy briefs without specifically identifying the individual public bodies being highlighted.
The detailed data on the procurements required by IGC include basic details on the level of government and areas of activity of the organisation, projected and actual expenditures budgets from the relevant years, some details on the organisational structure of the organization, the stock registers for the relevant years supplemented with a few other details, the fixed asset registers for the relevant years supplemented with a few other details; and some details on how the procurement process worked for a small number of individual purchases. The profile statement of the IGC states that it seeks to promote sustainable growth in developing countries by providing demand-led policy advice based on frontier research. The IGC is directed and organised from hubs at the London School of Economics (LSE) and Oxford and operates country offices across the developing world.
The IGC was initiated and funded by UKaid from the Department for International Development (DFID), which is part of the UK Government that manages Britain’s aid to poor countries and works to eradicate extreme poverty. This is why in 2008 DFID set up the IGC to gather world experts to give practical policy advice to help developing countries to build stronger and faster growing economies. DFID has committed up to £37 million to the IGC.