The World Bank has called on Bishkek to modernise public procurement and introduce a ‘single window’ system

Kyrgyzstan is facing a major transformation in the area of public procurement. The World Bank, one of the country's key partners, is insisting on a more transparent, competitive and digital system for the distribution of budget funds.

At a meeting in Washington, Deputy Minister of Finance Ulugbek Kalenderov discussed ways to improve the procurement system with Felipe Goya, the World Bank's lead procurement specialist for Europe and Central Asia. Representatives of the Kyrgyz side also participated in the conversation, including heads of internal audit services, the Academy of Finance, and the Department of Public Procurement.

As part of the World Bank's budget support aimed at increasing the transparency and efficiency of public procurement procedures, the partner insists on reducing the practice of direct contracting. Instead, Kyrgyzstan is being encouraged to more actively implement a mechanism for scoring bids and accounting for the life cycle cost of goods and services — that is, to look not only at the price of the contract, but also at its long-term effectiveness.

Another area of reform is the development of a ‘single window’ system for electronic procurement. The new format will allow processes to be tracked in real time, data to be analysed and monitoring to be carried out via a special panel.

In addition, there are plans to create an official structure for remunerating members of the independent commission that considers complaints from tender participants. This measure is intended to increase accountability and reduce the influence of administrative pressure.

Representatives of the Ministry of Finance and the World Bank also discussed the Eighth Annual Open International Forum on Public Procurement on the topic: ‘Procurement Transformation: Planning as the Key to Efficiency and Sustainable Development.’ Public procurement reform will be the central theme of the event. The forum will bring together representatives of government, business and international organisations to share experiences and discuss new standards of openness.

For his part, Mr. Felipe Goya emphasised the World Bank's readiness to continue cooperation with Kyrgyzstan in order to strengthen institutional sustainability and improve procurement processes.

At the end of the meeting, the parties expressed mutual interest in further developing the partnership.