Government Procurement Law Key Aspects
In order to achieve a more efficient government procurement system in Guatemala, it’s necessary to develop a new regulatory framework that guarantees an adequate balance between contracting checks and balances and the necessary freedom to contract efficiently and competitively, without neglecting the need to strengthen transparency.
Thus, following the recommendations of the Public Governance Committee of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, and the Agreement on Government Procurement of the World Trade Organization, it’s considered that any regulatory framework proposed over this topic should take into consideration the following strategic pillars: Institutional Strengthening
The Government Procurement System must be endowed with a solid institutional infrastructure to promote efficiency and mitigate arbitrary decision-making. Therefore, it is necessary: •
That any new regulation strengthens the entity with the legal mandate, within the Ministry of Finance, of coordinating and supervising the Government Procurement System by endowing it with legal hierarchy, resources, and clearly established institutional coverage to manage information, statistical databases, execute an administrative control, and, above all, establish the technical requirements to participate in bids, specifications of works, goods and services to be provided, criteria for evaluation of proposals, framework agreements, guidelines for the management of acquisitions, and model documents to which all entities in charge of Government procurement must comply in order to avoid the proliferation of scattered regulations subject to the different criteria of each government entity.
Professionalization
The efficiency of the system goes hand in hand with the professionalization of public officials. In this way, tools must be designed so that all of the officials in charge of public procurement have a high level of integrity, technical training, and skills for implementation. For this purpose: •
A special administrative career for procurement managers that establishes the required capacities, defines their specific responsibilities and evaluates their performance should be created. This training has to be focused not only on legal aspects, but also on market structures, price monitoring, best worldwide practices, and efficiency analysis, among others. 5
