Procurement and Operational Efficiency: An Analysis of How IDB-Financed Projects are Executed

An important challenge faced by the Multilateral Development Banks (MDB) is to mitigate delays in the implementation of its operations. To this end, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) sponsored a study to identify implementation procurement factors that cause implementation delays. The study found that 26 percent of the sovereign guaranteed investment lending portfolio financed by the IDB experienced procurement-related delays, primarily explained by nine factors. Among the factors related to a wide variety of procurement aspects of the procurement cycle, from design, planning and bidding process to contract's monitoring by the executing agency. This study identifies and evaluates the key procurement-related factors affecting project execution, based on surveys and information from internal and external Bank sources. The paper is divided into three sections: methodology, results and conclusions.