Transparent Public Procurement Rating – Kyrgyz Republic 2021

The task order supports Missions to improve host-country capacity to mobilize revenue and provide public services, the policy climate for investment that generates more productive employment and inclusive growth, host-country ability to recover from, prevent, and/or mitigate the impact of conflict, natural disasters, or fiscal crises, and host-country institutional capacity to identify, design, advocate, and implement better economic policies to enhance inclusive growth and gender equity. The "Effective Public Procurement for Kyrgyzstani Taxpayers" is a task under FAST that seeks to improve the self-reliance of the Kyrgyz Republic by improving public procurement systems. The project seeks reforms in public procurement systems and processes to increase efficiency and transparency and to reduce corruption, as well as enabling civic engagement in the conduct of public procurement operations. The project has two objectives: to increase efficiency and transparency of public procurement and to enable civic engagement and oversight over public procurement. Technical assistance under the project is divided into three broad categories. They include technical assistance to improve the capacity of the Ministry of Economy and Finance (Department of Public Procurement (DPP) and the capacity of procuring entities to conduct efficient procurements, technical assistance to civil society organizations (CSOs) in order to enable their participation in the public procurement tenders' oversight as well as building their capacity to better understand public procurement operations, and capacity building of both the Department of Public Procurement (DPP) and procurement entities' staff to promote efficient and transparent public procurement operations. The Transparent Public Procurement Rating (TPPR) Methodology is a tool to assess public procurement legislation from the perspective of transparency, with a view to identifying the strengths and weaknesses. It has been developed by the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) within the framework of the project "Transparent Public Procurement Rating – Assessing Public Procurement Legislation and the Enforcement Process in the Eurasian Region." The methodology consists of 64 indicators, each with equal weighting. The indicators are arranged according to the procurement process, though with some indicators being more general and/or related specifically to transparency aspects. A TPPR assessment of the public procurement legislation of the Kyrgyz Republic was conducted in 2018. The country scored a total of 65.96 percent, which ranked it as number 24 of 40 countries that have conducted the assessment. The assessment was updated in June 2021. Full details are included in the Annex to this report. Overall, the score for the Kyrgyz Republic increased to 72.24 percent in 2021. While the scores for the Transparency category remained the same, the other categories have seen improvement. Details of the scores by category are provided in Section 3. The main recommendations resulting from the assessment are to include a stipulation in the Law on Public Procurement (PPL) that information provided on the e-portal must be in machine-readable format. Rescind the amendments to the PPL that extend the required timeframe for publishing information from one calendar day to two business days. Stipulate the publication of Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV) or similar codes in procurement plans, procurement notices, and tender documentation, and of contract award announcements. In addition, consider the following updates to the PPL: obligate the Procurement Regulatory Body to regularly use a mechanism for consultation with the private and civil society sectors to receive feedback and identify problems in the procurement system, allow the general public or potential suppliers to submit complaints, review the justifications for the use of Direct Contracting and harmonize with international good practice, stipulate that procurement notices and tender documentation include information on payment conditions, source of funding, and payment information for multi-year contracts, stipulate that those responsible for procurement decision-making in procuring entities must declare in writing any conflict of interest with tender participants, and stipulate that in cases where evaluation criteria include both price and quality, the winner shall be chosen using a cost effectiveness approach such as life-cycle cost, best price-quality ratio and/or environmental and/or social costs.