Publication: Uzbekistan : Country Procurement Assessment Report
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2003-02
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2013-07-01
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Uzbekistan inherited the Soviet system for the procurement of goods, works and services for State needs. This system was suitable for a command economy but lacks the essential elements of competitiveness, transparency and accountability, which are the hallmarks of a market-based approach to government contracting. This Country Procurement Assessment Report (CPAR) comes at a time when a number of factors are creating an increased need for public procurement reform. Primary among these is that Uzbekistan has concluded a Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) with the European Union which commits the Government to develop conditions for open and competitive award of procurement contracts. Also, the country's application for membership to the World Trade Organization (WTO) may lead to accession to the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA), thereby creating an obligation on Uzbekistan to align its procurement legislation with the GPA. The report, examines all areas of public procurement operations, including, legislative framework, performance of regulatory functions, capacity of public sector institutions and the effects of corruption on procurement. It also recommends the Government to prepare a new draft Law on Public Procurement based on the January 2000 draft Law on Government Procurement.
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“World Bank. 2003. Uzbekistan : Country Procurement Assessment Report. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/14346 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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Publication Competition, Corporate Governance, and Regulation in Central Asia : Uzbekistan's Structural Reform Challenges(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2000-05)In Uzbekistan state enterprises are being changed into shareholding companies, and private enterprises account for 45 percent of all registered firms. But business decisions to set prices, output, and investment are often not market-based, nor wholly within the purview of businesses, especially those in commercial manufacturing and services. Lines of authority for corporate governance - from state enterprises to private enterprises - are ill-defined, so there is little discipline on corporate performance and little separation between government and business. Nascent frameworks have been created for competition policy (for firms in the commercial sector) and regulatory policy (governing utilities in the infrastructure monopoly sector). 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Whilst the Ministry of Finance (MOF) is formally charged with authority over public procurement, it is only recently that MOF has dedicated resources to perform key oversight functions. That said, the MOF unit charged with this onerous obligation, the Public Procurement Division of the Ministry's Legal Department, lacks the stature and capacity to discharge its functions effectively. Furthermore, the institutions which should play an indispensable role in performing oversight of public procurement, including the State Auditor's Office, have not yet been operating effectively. Weak enforcement is further exacerbated by a low level of awareness of the law's provisions, the roots of which lie partly in inadequate dissemination, and by the absence of sufficient numbers of public officials trained in procurement, a shortcoming which is particularly acute in self-governing units of local government. 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The assessment, which was conducted jointly by the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), was carried out in consultation with counterparts from Federal Ministry of Finance, Federal Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations, the Ministry of Finance and Economy of the Republic of Serbia, and the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Montenegro. The report sums up key findings, including risk assessment, the strengths and weaknesses of the public procurement system currently in place, and the main features of a proposed action plan.Publication Vietnam - Country Procurement Assessment Report : Transforming Public Procurement(Washington, DC, 2002-10-01)The transition from a centrally planned economy to a "socialist oriented market economy" in Vietnam has called for comprehensive changes in the legal framework of the State. The last ten years have witnessed great progress in the development of the Vietnamese legal system, both in substantive and procedural matters. A number of important legal instruments have been promulgated, such as the Constitution in 1992; the Land Law in 1993; and the Civil Code in 1996. More recent normative instruments include the Commercial Law of 1997 and various Ordinances and Regulations on matters such as foreign investment, management of investment and construction, national bidding procedures, conduct of public employees, control of corruption and thrift in the use of public funds. Procurement in the public sector in Vietnam was governed mainly by Decrees issued by the Government. The key existing legal instruments governing public procurement are summarized in Table 1. In addition, there are other Decrees and Inter-Ministerial circulars, which contain provisions concerning public procurement and use of public funds. The report discusses key issues such as the legal and regulatory framework; procurement procedures and practices; institutional framework; human resources and procurement capacity; state-owned enterprises and gives recommendations. Annexes include: (a) A Review of the 5th Draft of Vietnam Public Procurement Ordinance; (b) A: Legal Framework; (c) Trade Practices; (d) Financial Framework; (e) Public Sector Procurement of Goods/Works; (f) Public Sector Selection of Consultants; (g) Procurement Performance ; (h) Private Sector Procurement; (ix) Checklist Comparing NCB Procedures and World Bank Policy; (i) Classification of Investment Projects; (j) : Available Methods for the Selection of Bidders (k) Construction Industry Reform - Summary Report; (l) Summary of Pertinent Laws and regulations; and (m) NCB Acceptability - Proposed Provisions for Bank legal agreements.
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