Fighting Corruption And Promoting Integrity In Public Procurement

Much is at stake in the global effort to tackle corruption in public procurement Corruption diverts public funds from worthwhile development projects, holds back economic growth and undermines public trust in government. Public procurement - the purchase of goods and services by governments and state-owned enterprises - accounts for about 15 per cent of GDP in OECD countries and is highly exposed to corruption. Both public and private actors in the procurement process may be tempted to divert goods and services or public funds for their personal use. To identify "weak links" in the public procurement process where the risk of corruption is high, to explore the best ways of improving transparency and accountability and to identify effective actions to prevent, detect and sanction corruption in this field, the OECD organised a Global Forum on Governance event on "Fighting Corruption and Promoting Integrity in Public Procurement", hosted by the French Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industry in Paris in November 2004. This publication captures the main points of the Global Forum discussions and presents expert analysis of the main issues and case studies from the varied experiences of countries and specialised bodies, mainly in Europe, Asia and Latin America, that contributed to the event.