The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) has expressed concern over low procurement compliance at government institutions, ministries, and state-owned entities.

Research Associate at IPPR, Frederico Links, says that public entities are undermining transparency around public procurement at all levels.

He stated that although the first quarter of the 2024/2025 financial year has lapsed, the majority of the government ministries, offices, agencies, enterprises, and regulatory bodies have failed to provide public access to their annual procurement plans and summaries of procurement awards on their websites.

According to the Public Procurement Act of 2015, public entities are required to produce an annual procurement plan, which is to be submitted to the Procurement Policy Unit and posted or published on the website of the entity.

"The compliance issue doesn't just affect the transparency mechanism. This producing of annual procurement plans, making sure that the information is where it's supposed to be, reflects compliance issues within these entities at every level. So if you have compliance issues with just producing these documents and publishing them, then you can imagine their compliance issues with others throughout that system as well."

The IPPR, in its evaluation, found that only six of 21 government ministries had submitted annual procurement plans on their website, whereas 12 had submitted them on the Procurement Policy Unit Website, and only two had submitted a summary of the Bid Evaluation Committee.

Further indicating that out of 14 regional councils, only four had submitted annual procurement plans on their website, with six submitting them on the Procurement Policy Unit website and only two submitting the summary of the Bid Evaluation Committee.

The reports also indicate that only one municipal council out of 18 had submitted their annual procurement plans on their website, with three submitting them on the Procurement Policy Unit website, and none of them had submitted a summary of the Bid Evaluation Committee.

"I emphasise once again. We're four months into the financial year, and 68% of public entities still have not. We still don't have an idea of what's in their annual procurement plans for this financial year. We're four months into the year and a third into the financial year."