From the article (emphasis are mine)
“The fight against corruption is a multilateral responsibility, and it needs a new kind of creative and positive leadership from different sectors of society to ensure systemic change. The Mexican case is interesting, not because the problem is solved, but because a new type of leadership emerged to set a different agenda.”
Full article by the World Economic Forum:
This is how Mexico is fighting corruption – World Economic Forum
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Bertrand Maltaverne
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Hi Bertrand – Thanks for sharing this piece, it’s very thought provoking.
Sometimes it’s easy to think that corruption in public life, particularly procurement, is something which only happens in countries where the development of systems around transparent processes (like advertising and eSourcing) is not particularly advanced isn’t it?
Indeed I fell into this very trap when speaking to Chris Browne of the World Bank earlier in the year. Chris was making the case to me that tackling corruption should still be the main thing for public procurement across the world to be worring about. I made the mistake of suggesting that surely this really was a thing of the past for those of us in UK public procurement – we’ve got the beloved EU procurement directives, advertising portals and clear “standards in public life”. Imagine my consternation when the very next day there was press coverage of corruption allegations in a Scottish Local Authority! Chris was, of course, right and I was very red faced.
Leadership is key as this article quite rightly suggests but I love the fact that the Law 3 out of 3 came from “the public” themselves. We need to be involving the people we serve much more in our public procurement processes if we can. This brings them closer to our processes and may give them much more of a stake in working with us get things right. Ideally we can then reward them with great outcomes from our contracts and, of course, a process that the architects of the Law 3 out of 3 would be proud of.
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HELEN MACKENZIE
Head of Procurement and Exchequer Services
Scottish Local Government
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Original Message:
Sent: 12-05-2016 09:27
From: Bertrand Maltaverne
Subject: Interesting article on how Mexico is fighting corruption
From the article (emphasis are mine)
“The fight against corruption is a multilateral responsibility, and it needs a new kind of creative and positive leadership from different sectors of society to ensure systemic change. The Mexican case is interesting, not because the problem is solved, but because a new type of leadership emerged to set a different agenda.”
Full article by the World Economic Forum:
This is how Mexico is fighting corruption – World Economic Forum
——————————
Bertrand Maltaverne
——————————
Helen,
Thanks for commenting and for your insights!
You are right, there is a perception that processes and technology are the solutions to all problems. I mean, they can improve things a lot; especially by bringing structure and transparency… But, at the end, people are still what matters and makes the difference (for the best and, sometimes, for not the “so good”…)
On that topic, last year, I wrote a 3-part series on the World Bank’s 2016 report on Public Procurement and the last part was on corruption by looking at another report from Transparency International. Comparing the two reports is quite interesting. Here are the posts:
World Bank Benchmark of Public Procurement: Behind the Numbers
World Bank Public Procurement Benchmarking: Bureaucracy
How Pervasive Is Corruption in Public Procurement?
On another aspect of your comments, the one regarding press coverage ofcorruption, here is a “story” from Wales that illustrates how the press is sometimes a bit too eager to report on these stories: McDonald’s and Public Procurement: Behind the Knee Jerk
And, as you mention it, the Mexico story is quite interesting in terms of involvement of the public!
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Bertrand Maltaverne
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Original Message:
Sent: 12-06-2016 10:06
From: HELEN MACKENZIE
Subject: Interesting article on how Mexico is fighting corruption
Hi Bertrand – Thanks for sharing this piece, it’s very thought provoking.
Sometimes it’s easy to think that corruption in public life, particularly procurement, is something which only happens in countries where the development of systems around transparent processes (like advertising and eSourcing) is not particularly advanced isn’t it?
Indeed I fell into this very trap when speaking to Chris Browne of the World Bank earlier in the year. Chris was making the case to me that tackling corruption should still be the main thing for public procurement across the world to be worring about. I made the mistake of suggesting that surely this really was a thing of the past for those of us in UK public procurement – we’ve got the beloved EU procurement directives, advertising portals and clear “standards in public life”. Imagine my consternation when the very next day there was press coverage of corruption allegations in a Scottish Local Authority! Chris was, of course, right and I was very red faced.
Leadership is key as this article quite rightly suggests but I love the fact that the Law 3 out of 3 came from “the public” themselves. We need to be involving the people we serve much more in our public procurement processes if we can. This brings them closer to our processes and may give them much more of a stake in working with us get things right. Ideally we can then reward them with great outcomes from our contracts and, of course, a process that the architects of the Law 3 out of 3 would be proud of.
——————————
HELEN MACKENZIE
Head of Procurement and Exchequer Services
Scottish Local Government
————————————————————————-
Original Message:
Sent: 12-05-2016 09:27
From: Bertrand Maltaverne
Subject: Interesting article on how Mexico is fighting corruption
From the article (emphasis are mine)
“The fight against corruption is a multilateral responsibility, and it needs a new kind of creative and positive leadership from different sectors of society to ensure systemic change. The Mexican case is interesting, not because the problem is solved, but because a new type of leadership emerged to set a different agenda.”
Full article by the World Economic Forum:
This is how Mexico is fighting corruption – World Economic Forum
——————————
Bertrand Maltaverne
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