The Legal and Institutional Framework of Public Construction Works Procurement in Ethiopia

Abstract

Ethiopia has adopted its own legal and institutional framework of public procurements consisting of modern public procurement rules, principles and regulatory set ups so as to overhaul the weak and corrupt public procurement systems. Although there are changes in the Ethiopian legal and institutional framework following the enactment of the 2009 Public procurement proclamation, it is argued with regard to its application to different type of public procurements. Accordingly, this paper particularly deals the legal and institutional framework of public construction works procurement in Ethiopia. Crucially, the public procurement regime in a market economy is, inter alia, determined by the quality of the consistency and inclusion of the modern guiding principles for public procurement laws. In this respect, the Public procurement regime has markedly developed considerable guiding principles of public procurement. Accordingly, this work assessed those principles in legal and institutional framework of public construction works procurement in Ethiopia and through discussion; it has found contravening the guiding principles. Accordingly, based on the legal research qualitative methodology and primary data, cases and looking into the existing literature, the paper basically identified that inadequate emphasis given to the methods and procedures of public construction works procurement and lack of specific regulatory framework that adopt e-procurement methods of procurement and Performance- Based Contracting (PBC) in government construction works procurement, and nonetheless, the failure of regulatory framework to effectively address procurement made between two and more public bodies and the fragmented nature of public construction works procurement regulatory framework are crucially affecting the effectiveness of the public construction works procurement in Ethiopia. In addition, the thesis further argues, absence of comprehensive regulatory framework that allows public bodies to check the reasonable performance, require regulatory reforms in Ethiopia to introduce new approach and tools like Performance Based Contracting (PBC) that enable public bodies to reasonably check „cost of procurements effectiveness‟. As regards institutional setups for the competitive public construction works in Ethiopia, the study identified the absence of coordination and overlap of mandates among government organs charged to check and balance the activity of procuring organs in public construction works in Ethiopia.