./.RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/WGTGP/W/20/Add.1
24 September 1998
(98-3677)
Working Group on Transparency
in Government ProcurementOriginal:  English
TECHNICAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES:  INFORMATION FROM
OTHER INTERGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS
ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT (OECD)
Addendum
At its meeting of 22 June 1998, the Working Group agreed to request the Secretariat to provide
information on the technical cooperation programmes of international and regional intergovernmental
organizations in the area of government procurement, so as to enable the Group to have as complete apicture as possible of the availability of technical assistance in this field.
In consequence, the Secretariat wrote to relevant international and regional intergovernmental
organizations requesting them to provide such information.  The present document reproduces the
information which has been received in response from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD) by means of a communication, dated 11 August 1998.
_______________
The main source of such assistance within the OECD is SIGMA  (Support for Improvement in
Governance and Management in Central and Eastern European Countries).  Most of SIGMA 's funding
comes from the European Commission's Phare programme, and a substantial proportion of its work is
oriented towards the needs of countries in central and eastern Europe, as they make the transition tomembership of the European Union.  In the procurement field, this includes matching the standards of
procurement legislation and administrative procedures achieved by EU members, as well as complying
with wider international standards and requirements (such as those of the WTO and the World Bank)
relating to government procurement.
Technical assistance projects in the procurement field in which SIGMA  is currently engaged,
or projects that are planned, include the following:
(a) preparation of new public procurement laws in Bulgaria, Slovenia, Slovakia, Romania
and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia;
(b) setting up public procurement offices in Lithuania and Romania;
(c) participation in the work of a procurement advisory committee established by the
Government of Latvia;
(d) developing a training strategy for procurement officials in Hungary;
(e) advising the Baltic States on how to strengthen their procurement complaints and
arbitration procedures;WT/WGTGP/W/20/Add.1
Page 2
(f) providing comparative information on anti-corruption procedures in the procurement
area;
(g) publication of "Public Procurement:  A Manual for Central and Eastern Europe" in
December 1998;
(h) a joint project with the International Training Centre of the ILO to prepare a "training
of trainers" course in public procurement, based on the EC directives (for completion in
December 1998).
Demand from the countries in the region for SIGMA  assistance in the procurement field is
growing as the process of European accession gathers pace.
It may be of interest to note other work that the OECD is conducting on government
procurement, even though it does not fall into the category of technical assistance in implementing rules
and procedures.  The Development Assistance Committee  (DAC) is reviewing government
procurement practices in the context of efforts to untie Official Development Assistance (ODA) to least
developed countries.  The DAC is looking at the re gimes governing bilateral aid procurement, with a
particular focus on regimes for tied and untied aid.  In addition to general information on the types of
aid covered by tied and untied regimes and the locus of procurement responsibility (donor/recipient),
the profiles set out information and procedures concerning eligibility, procurement regimes (e.g.international competitive bidding, international shopping, national competitive bidding, direct
negotiation), advertising, bidding, evaluation and award, controls and accountability.  This work will be
completed in the first half of 1999.
Part of this work concerns "helping develop th e capacities of the private sector and procurement
systems in partner countries".  A longer-term objective within this initiative is to identify partnercountry needs and the donor assistance required to move the responsibility for procurement into the
hands of partner countries.  This work will investigate the needs and requirements of both donors and
recipients related to the further transfer of procurement responsibility to partner countries, including not
only capacities to conduct procurement efficiently and effectively, but also in respect of standards for
transparency, probity and accountability.  The next stage of the discussion of these issues will be held atthe meeting of the DAC's Working Part y on Financial Aspects on 28-29 October 1998.
The Trade Directorate  is carrying out research that aims at helping governments have a clearer
idea of the size of government markets in OE CD economies as well as non-OECD countries and
addressing problems of data collection in this area.
The activity has two main objectives:
(a) Better data on market size will allow countries to assess the potential economic gains
deriving from liberal procurement policies.  A clearer appreciation of the businessopportunities generated by the public sector – at home and in foreign economies – may
furthermore help attract broader participatio n in rule-making at the international level.
(b) Moreover, the identification of methodological weaknesses in the context of this
research and further work underpinning the development of more rigorous and uniform
methods for collecting data on government procurement – which raise complicated andtechnical issues – can contribute to the more efficient implementation of procurement
systems at the national level and to international commitments in this area.
__________