Public Procurement in Latin America and the Caribbean and IDB-financed project: a Normative and Comparative Study

Author
Benavides, José Luis;
M'Causland Sánchez, María Cecilia;
Flórez Salazar, Catalina;
Date
Dec 2016
In recent years, Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries have madeimportant advances in the modernization of their public procurement systems.
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), with the aim of maintaining and
deepening its commitment to LAC countries under its development
effectiveness framework, has been adapting the approach to procurement in
projects to ensure that internationally accepted standards and good market
practices are followed, while assisting countries efficiently and effectively in a
changing environment. This study presents a comparative analysis of the
normative public procurement frameworks of 12 LAC countries with respect to
IDB procurement policies. The main goal of the study is to identify the main
differences and opportunities that have been analyzed the most in IDB¿s
procurement policies to support the strategy of alignment to the demands of
the countries in the abovementioned development effectiveness framework.
The study identified the need to describe explicitly the guiding principles of
public procurement in the IDB¿s Procurement Policy, as well as broaden the
concept of value for money; include new methods of procurement, such as
competitive dialogue and negotiation; make the evaluation criteria for works
and goods in complex projects more flexible; incorporate the use of technology
for certain contracting methods, such as framework agreements and reverse
auctions; and streamline the use of national public procurement systems.