Publication: Lebanon: Assessment of the Public Procurement System
Loading...
Date
2021
ISSN
Published
2021
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Public procurement is one of the main cross-sectoral reforms that the Government of Lebanon committed to at the “Conférence économique pour le développement, par les réformes et avec les entreprises” (CEDRE) held in Paris in April 2018, in order to improve fiscal governance and the quality of public services, encourage investment inflows, and strengthen accountability and transparency. Public procurement accounts for an average of 20% of central government expenditure and 6.5% of the Gross Domestic Product (thus, around USD 3.4 billion in 2019) at the central level. A coherent and clear public procurement system in line with international standards and based on sound legal and institutional foundations is thought to improve competitiveness of the economy, attract quality service providers, strengthen accountability and transparency and achieve savings on yearly basis, allowing for more fiscal space to finance public investments and for enhancing service delivery to citizens. As a result, it would considerably contribute to helping resolve the current economic and financial crisis and create the basis for the implementation of the Government’s vision for economic recovery and sustainable development.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2021. Lebanon: Assessment of the Public Procurement System. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35793 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication India, Uttar Pradesh : State Financial Accountability Assessment(Washington, DC, 2004-08-31)Uttar Pradesh (UP) is India's most populous State, and one of the poorest. Serious fiscal problems have emerged since the 1990s: the revenue deficit has increased significantly over the years, as well as the fiscal deficit, and, arrangements for accountability in the public sector have been undermined. Procedures exist for budgeting and monitoring the use of public resources, but there is little incentive to follow them. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India questions numerous departmental actions each year, but there is no compulsion on the executive branch to provide prompt answers, and to make necessary changes. Some useful progress has been made in implementing the financial management reform program over the last three years, as follows: 1) Computerization of the Treasuries in a network system has been completed at state government level, enabling the Government to monitor cash flows and prevent excess expenditures; 2) a Directorate of Internal Audit has been established in the Department of Finance to provide central leadership, and guidance in the development of departmental audit; and, 3) measures are being taken to establish better control over payrolls. The report reviews the strengths and weaknesses in financial management and accountability, to present a risk analysis that highlights widespread irregularities, and lack of prompt and predictable corrective action, meaning that the overall level of fiduciary risk remains high. It suggests there is significant scope for the Government of UP to improve the efficiency, and effectiveness of public spending through further consolidation of the budget, better matching of accountability with responsibility, routine enforcement of accountability, and greater transparency. This would be fully consistent with the fiscal reform program, and would have a direct impact on the GoUP's ability to provide more, and better quality public services to the poor. Recommendations suggest to a) depute one or more senior officials in the Finance Department to oversee public financial accountability reforms; b) review and update Financial Handbooks, Treasury Rules and Budget Manuals; c) develop and implement a Medium Term Expenditure framework in major spending departments of GoUP; and, d) strengthen accountability in Rural Local Bodies, in internal controls in Development Authorities, in internal audit within GoUP, in state government training institutions, and, build capacities within the Finance Department.Publication Republic of Lebanon : Country Financial Accountability Assessment(Washington, DC, 2005-05)This CFAA aims to propose pragmatic and feasible solutions to problem areas in the current environment. The recommendations are presented in Appendix 8 to this report, and the key recommendations that are designed to address the areas of greatest fiduciary risk for the Government are summarized in this Executive Summary. These key recommendations are designed to assist the Government in improving the Lebanese public financial management system and provide the foundation to all the donors to move towards greater use of the country system. One of the CFAA's overall themes is that the Government must continue to work to develop a unified budget framework that enables proper management of the finances of the Government, in collaboration with the Bank and the IMF. This would assist the Government to better control public sector debt, revenues and expenditures, maintain its social safety nets, and improve its financial relations with the public utilities. The current budget framework is not unified for the entire public sector; many of its financial activities are still not transparent to the Government itself, to Parliament or to the public. These include transactions of extra-budgetary funds and entities, loans to selected public autonomous agencies that are converted to expenditure at the end of the financial year and unutilized investment authority that is carried forward without additional parliamentary disclosure or for review of actual performance against the budget plans. There is also no formal audit opinion by the Court of Accounts on the fairness of the Government's annual financial report. The CFAA report makes a number of recommendations to address these practices.Publication Zambia - Public Expenditure Management and Financial Accountability Review : Country Financial Accountability Assessment, Annex, Volume 2(Washington, DC, 2003-11)The challenges faced by Zambia in public expenditure management (PEM) have been longstanding, and will require targeted efforts, as well as a strong degree of political will to address. The recently launched constitutional review, which includes issues of public finance, the anti-corruption campaign of the new Government, and the renewed interest by Parliament in governance issues, and accountability have all been encouraging steps. Nevertheless, for Zambia to assure that public accountability is enduring, and not dependent upon the Government of the day, it must take steps to strengthen institutions of the State that can provide public oversight, and that promote basic checks and balances. This report provides a very detailed analysis of the country's PEM, and accountability processes. Yet, many of the recommendations are not new, but have been cited in previous reports of the Bank, and/or other donors. Effective implementation of public sector reforms will likely remain a challenge in Zambia. The limited capacity of Government suggests the need to target a few major aspects of public finance, and to address them persistently: improving compliance with existing regulations; strengthening the oversight institutions of the State; promoting public access to information; and, rebuilding information management, and reporting systems. The report also deals with the second objective of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), i.e., with ways and methods by which the Government can ensure efficient, equitable, and transparent management of public resources. It also focuses on the dimension of governance, i.e., the effectiveness of government to be able to provide public services. The specific objectives of the report are to: (a) provide a comprehensive and integrated assessment of Zambia's overall fiduciary risk, i.e., budget management, financial systems and auditing, and public procurement; (b) document PEM reforms progress to-date, and challenges facing Zambia; and, (c) develop a realistic action plan, outlining short and medium term remedial measures, which the Government should implement with donor support.Publication Mauritania : Anti-Corruption Study(Washington, DC, 2008-09)This report provides analytic support to the National Anti-corruption Strategy (NACS) formulation, offers lessons from international experience on governance and anti-corruption (GAC) policy, and generally supports the Government and its development partners to better understand the phenomenon of corruption in Mauritania. The report is structured as follows: Chapter 2 focuses on the definition and measurement of corruption and the Mauritanian political economy. Chapter 3 focuses on corruption in public procurement. Chapter 4 concentrates on corruption in the courts of law. Chapter 5 deals with the extractive industries. Chapter 6 focuses on corruption from the perspective of the private sector, based on the results of the recent Investment Climate Assessment (ICA). On the basis of the analysis conducted in this report, the single most important message concerns the need for maintaining momentum and pressing ahead with the finalization of ongoing anti-corruption strategic thinking and legislation, and the implementation of already approved GAC laws and measures. Looking forward, the emphasis should shift from passing laws and rules to concrete implementation of procedures on a broader agenda of greater political accountability. Priority areas include: (1) independence of the media, (2) monitoring procedures (such as a governance diagnostic survey) and (3) the establishment of an effective mechanism through which the voice of citizens and users of public services can be heard.Publication Implementing EITI for Impact : A Handbook for Policy Makers and Stakeholders(Washington, DC, 2012-11)The purpose of this handbook is to provide guidance to stakeholders (including policy makers, industry, and civil society) in countries currently implementing, or seeking to implement, EITI. It provides practical guidance on the measures required to launch and implement EITI successfully. In addition, using the Extractive Industries (EI) Value Chain as an analytical tool, this handbook holistically analyzes the importance of EITI to domestic economies, governance structures, and local populations, and suggests measures to leverage its potential to ensure inclusive growth and sustainable development. To enable the achievement of this goal, this handbook assists EITI-implementing countries in mainstreaming EITI into the good-governance agenda by recommending global good-fit practices, by building on the EITI standards. EITI Principles, Criteria, and Rules inform the contents of this handbook.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21)This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts.Publication World Development Report 2006(Washington, DC, 2005)This year’s Word Development Report (WDR), the twenty-eighth, looks at the role of equity in the development process. It defines equity in terms of two basic principles. The first is equal opportunities: that a person’s chances in life should be determined by his or her talents and efforts, rather than by pre-determined circumstances such as race, gender, social or family background. The second principle is the avoidance of extreme deprivation in outcomes, particularly in health, education and consumption levels. This principle thus includes the objective of poverty reduction. The report’s main message is that, in the long run, the pursuit of equity and the pursuit of economic prosperity are complementary. In addition to detailed chapters exploring these and related issues, the Report contains selected data from the World Development Indicators 2005‹an appendix of economic and social data for over 200 countries. This Report offers practical insights for policymakers, executives, scholars, and all those with an interest in economic development.Publication Argentina Country Climate and Development Report(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11)The Argentina Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) explores opportunities and identifies trade-offs for aligning Argentina’s growth and poverty reduction policies with its commitments on, and its ability to withstand, climate change. It assesses how the country can: reduce its vulnerability to climate shocks through targeted public and private investments and adequation of social protection. The report also shows how Argentina can seize the benefits of a global decarbonization path to sustain a more robust economic growth through further development of Argentina’s potential for renewable energy, energy efficiency actions, the lithium value chain, as well as climate-smart agriculture (and land use) options. Given Argentina’s context, this CCDR focuses on win-win policies and investments, which have large co-benefits or can contribute to raising the country’s growth while helping to adapt the economy, also considering how human capital actions can accompany a just transition.Publication Lebanon Economic Monitor, Fall 2022(Washington, DC, 2022-11)The economy continues to contract, albeit at a somewhat slower pace. Public finances improved in 2021, but only because spending collapsed faster than revenue generation. Testament to the continued atrophy of Lebanon’s economy, the Lebanese Pound continues to depreciate sharply. The sharp deterioration in the currency continues to drive surging inflation, in triple digits since July 2020, impacting the poor and vulnerable the most. An unprecedented institutional vacuum will likely further delay any agreement on crisis resolution and much needed reforms; this includes prior actions as part of the April 2022 International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff-level agreement (SLA). Divergent views among key stakeholders on how to distribute the financial losses remains the main bottleneck for reaching an agreement on a comprehensive reform agenda. Lebanon needs to urgently adopt a domestic, equitable, and comprehensive solution that is predicated on: (i) addressing upfront the balance sheet impairments, (ii) restoring liquidity, and (iii) adhering to sound global practices of bail-in solutions based on a hierarchy of creditors (starting with banks’ shareholders) that protects small depositors.Publication Global Economic Prospects, June 2024(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-06-11)After several years of negative shocks, global growth is expected to hold steady in 2024 and then edge up in the next couple of years, in part aided by cautious monetary policy easing as inflation gradually declines. However, economic prospects are envisaged to remain tepid, especially in the most vulnerable countries. Risks to the outlook, while more balanced, are still tilted to the downside, including the possibility of escalating geopolitical tensions, further trade fragmentation, and higher-for-longer interest rates. Natural disasters related to climate change could also hinder activity. Subdued growth prospects across many emerging market and developing economies and continued risks underscore the need for decisive policy action at the global and national levels. Global Economic Prospects is a World Bank Group Flagship Report that examines global economic developments and prospects, with a special focus on emerging market and developing economies, on a semiannual basis (in January and June). Each edition includes analytical pieces on topical policy challenges faced by these economies.