The importance of public procurement law to socio-economic development with special reference to Namibia
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Date
2005
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Publisher
University of Namibia
Abstract
This study discusses the importance and relevance of public procurement law to socio-economic development, more specifically in the Namibian context. The discussion therefore contextualizes public procurement law within rational socio-economic considerations, as opposed to the assumption that public procurement is merely a mechanical process. Chapter one deals with the preliminary issues including subject of research, expectation from the research, the problem to be researched, the research question, relevance of the study, hypothesis, data sources and methodology and summary of conclusions. Chapter two introduces the paper, defines public procurement and contextualizes public procurement within the ambit of conceptual issues including normative and positive reasons for government intervention in the procurement market. It highlights and reflects on relevant economic theory relevant to public procurement. In general, the chapter reviews literature on the subject matter. Chapter three provides the background of the economic trends, investment regime and the history of the Tender Board of Namibia. Chapter four discusses the position of Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) within the context of international law. It is posited that Government procurement or as it is alternatively known, “public procurement”, is a very interesting subject matter for the reason that it attracts both national and international attention. Yet it has been on the periphery of international trade law until only in 1 January 1981 when the GATT Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) came into force. Still to date accession to the GPA remains voluntary, because the GPA is one of the WTO “plurilateral” agreements. Hence the interests of developing countries and a model law on procurement are highlighted.
For purpose of comparative analysis some elements of the Government Procurement Agreement and of multilateral financial institutions (African Development Bank) procurement systems are discussed in chapter five. In this case, the African Development Bank is used as a point of reference. The reason for choosing the procurement system of the African Development Bank is to juxtapose its experience with developing countries (specifically with that of Namibia in order to avoid over-generalization) because this is one institution that deals with many poor developing countries. How the Namibian procurement system conforms with international standards and proposed changes to the system are discussed in the same chapter. The concluding chapter focuses on the various reasons why government intervenes in the market through public procurement, major reasons among others being market failures; socio-economic imperatives such as social justice; economic empowerment; and industrialization drives. These constitute important criteria used by government to target tenders in order to meet some specific development objectives. It is submitted that the Namibian procurement system complies to some extent with the accepted international standards. However, further areas for improvement include developing arbitration mechanisms, dispute settlement procedures, procurement through electronic system and broadening accessibility of public procurement to the broader populace in the country.
Description
A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Law
Keywords
Procurement law, Economic development, Namibia