08.12.2016
Moscow Municipal Management University hosted the conference on best world practices in public procurement
Now into its fourth year the conference on best world practices in public procurement was hold at the Moscow Municipal Management University (MGUU) co-organised by IBLF Russia. The speakers this year included Federica Saliola, of the World Bank, who manages the Benchmarking Public Procurement (BPP) project and Angela Joo-Hyun Kang, Founder and Executive President of GCEF (Global Competitiveness Empowerment Forum). The discussion was moderated by Nikolay Akimov, Deputy Head of Public Procurement Management Department, MGUU and Brook Horowitz, CEO IBLF Global. About 200 public procurement experts took part in the discussion.
The speakers talked about the outcomes of the World Bank Benchmarking Public Procurement project in 2016 and anti-corruption experienced gained in South Korea.
Nikolay Akimov stressed in his speach:
“Public Procurement in Russia changed a lot since last 25 years both in terms of economy and legislation. During recent years, the united procurement system covered all administrative and territorial divisions; the management of procurement cycle from planning to implementation of the contract was introduced; the united information system works for maximum transparency; contract management authority was set up; world experience is being integrated; the civil society is becoming more active in public discussion and supervision of the procurement process.
Now it is essential to outline further development which is in many respects determined by accumulated international practice. Therefore we have invited international experts today. Our colleagues will tell about global trends in public procurement and best practices in selected countries.”
Federica Saliola, managers BPP project at World Bank, the key mission of which is to increase the opportunities for business to be involved in public procurement and to encourage competition. Federica told about the outcomes of 2016 survey and world practices:
“We have completed comparative analysis of public procurement practices in 180 countries this year. The task of the project is to make the process more competitive therefore we design the survey from the point of view of business. We distribute our questionnaires and analyze the procedure simplicity, whether it is easy for a private entrepreneur to take part, etc. Besides we study the public procurement legislation in each country of the survey to assess the conformity with international standards.”
Brook Horowitz: ”Russia has one of the most effective public procurement procedures. When we talk about public procurement, uninformed people believe it is very corruptive. However our survey shows that public procurement process is highly transparent in many countries which mitigates the risk of corruption significantly.”
Angela Joo-Hyun Kang, President of GCEF, told about anti-corruption experience in the Republic of Korea. Transparency and effectiveness of the public procurement process in South Korea is ensured by KONEPS electronic system.
The speakers replied to numerous questions on partnership between government, business and society, as well as talked about tasks and future development of public procurement.
For reference
Federica Saliola manages Benchmarking Public Procurement Project at the World Bank Group. The project is aimed at study of accessibility and effectiveness of public procurement in various countries, taking into account world best practices. Federica has a long-term experience in development of benchmarking studies and survey management. She coordinated the joint World Bank and IFC Doing Business initiative that covered 120000 companies in 125 countries. Federica worked in the group on emerging countries economy of the World Bank and passed PhD defense.
Angela Joo-Hyun Kang, founder and Executive President of GCEF, member of B20 Infrastructure Task Force, has an experience in PR, sales and marketing in IT companies. Angela was a regulation reform committee member of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy of the Republic of Korea, an evaluation group member of State Owned Enterprises by the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, an advisor to the Global CSR Committee of Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency, and an advisor to the Presidential Council of Nation Branding, holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School. Brook Horowitz is CEO of IBLF Global. He is a member of and has co-chaired the B20 Anti-Corruption Task Force for three years. He has been a Contributing Editor of FCPA Blog. Previously to joining IBLF, he worked in a variety of sales, marketing, business development, and product management posts in General Electric in Russia and Central and Eastern Europe. Brook holds Master’s degrees from Harvard and Cambridge Universities.
Nikolay Akimov, Deputy Head of Public Procurement Management Department, MGUU, is involved in research work, elaboration of training programmes, scientific and methodological support of municipal procurement projects. He is a practitioner expert in public procurement for over 10 years, provides administrative and expert support for the World Bank Benchmarking Public Procurement project in Russia. Nikolay has completed several training courses and programmes outside the country, including in the spheres of procurement (Worthing, UK) and project management (London, UK), underwent a study course at Queensland government (Australia). Nikolay spoke at international conference “Public Procurement: Global Revolution” at University of Nottingham (UK). Graduated from the Financial Academy under the Government of the Russian Federation, Moscow State University of Foreign Affairs. PhD in Economics, and going to obtain the master’s degree at the University of California, Berkeley.
