Public procurement is characterized as a distorted market which grants limited access to foreign suppliers and contractors. However, the different impediments existing within the…
Abstract
Public procurement is characterized as a distorted market which grants limited access to foreign suppliers and contractors. However, the different impediments existing within the public procurement policies and their relative significance in restricting effective international competition are not very well known. This paper, through the process of developing a model of Trade Restrictiveness Index, identifies weighs and scales 17 impediments existing within the public procurement policies. The paper also reveals that implicit restriction which emanates mainly from lack of transparency imposes a greater level of restriction in the market. In a final application of the model, comparison of the public procurement policies of selected Common Market for Eastern and Southern African (COMESA) countries, has shown that with a rated index of 1, the procurement policies of Kenya and Uganda are rated as most restrictive while Rwandaʼs is found to be least restrictive.