Theme
“The contribution of public procurement to your
government’s reaction to the current economic crisis”.
In recent months Economic Stimulus Packages (ESPs) have become a popular path to attempting to revive or to encourage economic activity during the current Global Financial Crisis (GFC). The remedies being applied in most jurisdictions are experimental, they often defy the conventional economic wisdom of the past 40 years, and, as we have found, there is no uniformity of response.
In addition, there is evidence that public procurement officials are being asked to deliver public policy objectives whether or not an economic stimulus package has been applied. In some cases, budget cuts have been applied and in other cases both ESPs and budget cuts have occurred. In every case, the likely success of each approach is unknown.
The IRSPP4 workshop held in November 2009 in Lisbon involved 19 countries and aimed to:
- Describe the nature of the economic package applied in each country
- Compare and contrast ESPs in a structured way
- Examine the role of public procurement in delivery and support of ESPs
- Examine the measurement of performance of ESPs and the role played by public procurement within them
Structured case studies were prepared and presented by senior public procurement practitioners and leading international academics in public procurement. The analysis of the cases is currently being conducted. However, it was evident that a wide variety of elements of ESPs existed internationally.
It was also clear that public procurement has been used in many cases as a policy lever to implement those packages particularly relating to investment in national and local infrastructure projects and also through changes to the public procurement process and regulations.
The case studies are being revisited by each country to include additional information to answer specific research questions arising from the workshop. A complete analysis will then be performed across the cases, and the findings tested more widely in early 2010 across the international public procurement community.
The organisers wish to thank the participants and their colleagues for preparing the cases that were presented at IRSPP4, and the sponsors who generously provided the financial and in-kind support that enabled the Workshop to be undertaken and will ensure the results are published and widely disseminated.
Conference Photos
Please direct any other questions about the workshop to info@irspp.com
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