To improve the performance of public procurement, Awa Ndoye, a specialist in administration and finance and former Secretary-General of the Uemoa Court of Auditors, is calling for “the outsourcing of the award of public contracts”. On Thursday, Ms Ndoye presented her book entitled “Outsourcing public procurement: a lever for impact and performance in public action in Senegal”.

By Dialigué FAYE – “Administrative overload, a lack of specialist skills, increased risks of poor quality, delays in awarding contracts, fragmentation of reform initiatives.” These are, among others, the structural limitations of the current public procurement system identified by Awa Ndoye, a specialist in administration and finance, in her book entitled “Outsourcing public procurement: a lever for impact and performance in public action in Senegal”.

Faced with these challenges, the author recommends “outsourcing the award of public contracts”. The idea, she explains, is not “to circumvent procedures, still less to weaken them. Rather, it is about thinking how to better organise the management of contract award procedures, to professionalise it and make it more results-oriented. Outsourcing can considerably reduce timescales; mobilise certified experts; professionalise public purchasing; strengthen transparency and traceability; improve project delivery and the quality of acquisitions; reassure donors and attract more funding”.

However, the author stresses, “this outsourcing must be regulated, certified, monitored and applied in specific cases, not as a transfer of responsibility but as a lever for efficiency”. She also maintains that “outsourcing does not weaken the State. It strengthens its capacity to deliver, to do better, faster and with greater impact. It presents Senegal with a historic opportunity to modernise its procurement system and contribute to the public transformation sought in the ‘Senegal 2050’ agenda”.

Despite its limitations, Ms Ndoye notes significant progress in the procurement process in Senegal. She welcomes, for example, “greater transparency, the professionalisation of committees, the integration of CSR, the alignment of public companies with the same obligations as the conventional administration, and the increasing digitalisation of the system. But weaknesses persist, notably non-compliance, insufficient planning and low operational efficiency”.

In the Uemoa area, the author notes, “the 2005 community directives modernised procurement systems in the 8 member states. Despite institutional progress, operational performance remains weak: lengthy procedures, limited capacity, indicators not filled in, insufficient planning. The overall efficiency of the system is stagnating despite efforts at professionalisation and digitalisation”.

Hence the importance of outsourcing, according to Awa Ndoye, in order to “maximise the impact of policies within the Union”.

dialigue@lequotidien.sn