Transparency in public procurement in Senegal and Togo

Public procurement now accounts for a significant proportion of our national budgets. This budget it should be remembered is partly made up of fiscal resources which in turn are fed by citizens'' contributions in the form of taxes VAT etc. It therefore appears that public procurement requires special attention from citizens since it is they who partly albeit indirectly finance their state''s acquisitions of works supplies and services. In this respect it is legitimate for citizens to demand that the rules of transparency be respected when public resources have to be committed for public procurement purposes. Welcomed with great fanfare by Community bodies when it was first introduced transparency which was a principle transposed by Senegal and Togo to clean up the public procurement sector is nevertheless coming up against practices which at the very least can be described as deviant. These practices will be addressed in turn through the award procedures and control mechanisms against a backdrop of recommendations.