CHALLENGES OF COLLUSION IN THE PROCUREMENT OF COMMON USE ITEMS AND SERVICES IN ETHIOPIAN FEDERAL DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT SYSTEM: PARLIAMENT’S ROLE

Abstract

Procurement of essential common use items and services has a significant impact on the development process of the nation.  In a country, whether rich or poor, such public procurement is a frequent and familiar undertaking in almost every government administration. In Ethiopia, Public Procurement of common use items and services must be taken into consideration for socio-economic well-being of the country at large. The procurement market of common use items and services in Ethiopia has the risk of restricting competition and facilitates collusive tendering agreements due to the market structure and the procurement process. The challenging competition violations in the public procurement market are the same as any ordinary market context and that are mainly related to collusion. In this article, an attempt is made to closely look at the prevalence of collusion in the procurement of common items and services that forces the public buyer to pay prices, which are artificially, raised, and that in turn results supra-competitive price paid by the public purchaser.  Accordingly, based on the socio-legal research methodology, this paper investigates the role of Parliaments in the Procurement of common use items and services in Ethiopia and its regulatory functions related to regulations that are formally adopted by the government in order to give effect to law for public procurement of common use items and services or to provide implementing tools in support of its application. Accordingly, due the entry barriers, limited number of suppliers with repeated interaction and pre and post bid meeting of bidders as a result of transparency measures make the public procurement regime favorable for creating concerted practices. It must be kept in mind that Parliaments are a part of Ethiopian government with responsibility for shaping public policy, making law, and in democracies, providing legitimacy to government through elected representation. Parliaments functions in law-making, budget scrutiny, oversight and allow it to play a central role in ensuring good common items and services procurement system.