Participation et responsabilité dans les marchés publics (MN0050)

Énoncé du problème public ● Évaluation opaque des offres ● Perception publique des appels d'offres déloyaux ● Inégalité dans l'accès à l'information entre le gouvernement, la société civile et les secteurs privés ainsi que les groupes de population

Définition de l'engagement • Le cadre juridique est amélioré. • Le système de passation des marchés publics /www.tender.gov.mn/ est connecté aux systèmes des soumissionnaires pour permettre l'échange d'informations. • Le système de responsabilité pour les marchés publics est renforcé et l'indicateur d'alerte introduit. • Informations collectées sur l'avancement et l'exécution des contrats d'approvisionnement, et rendues publiques conformément aux normes internationales de passation de marchés ouverts . Le système numérique de passation des marchés /www.tender.gov.mn/ sera mis à niveau pour numériser les processus de formulation et de sélection des offres et ainsi minimiser le facteur humain.

Contribution à la résolution des problèmes publics L'efficacité des investissements publics sera renforcée par l'intégration des normes d'équité, de transparence et de responsabilité dans le respect de la procédure régulière et son suivi dans la passation des marchés publics. Des données ouvertes sur la gestion des marchés publics seront propices à la mise en place de systèmes de gestion des risques, à la prise de décisions fondées sur la connaissance, ainsi qu'au suivi public et à l'analyse indépendante des dépenses budgétaires publiques.

Pertinence pour les valeurs de l'OGP • Accroître la transparence • Renforcer la participation et l'engagement du public • Réduire la corruption et les conflits d'intérêts

Informations complémentaires Budget : Budget de l'Etat et investissement des organisations internationales Cohérence avec : • la Politique de Développement à Long Terme « Vision-2050 » ; • « Vision de développement durable de la Mongolie-2030 » ; • Disposition 3.1.15 du Plan d'action 2020-2024 du gouvernement mongol

Définition de la cible Réduction des effets négatifs sur le facteur humain dans les marchés publics grâce à l'application de technologies avancées ; Les rapports de suivi et d'évaluation participatifs font l'objet d'examens par les parties prenantes et sont rendus publics.

Actions de suivi : surveillance et évaluation continues, activités d'information et de communication du public

Jalons : Date de début : Date de fin : Renforcer l'environnement juridique 2021.11.01 2022.09.30 Compiler et opérationnaliser un catalogue de données numériques domaine du secteur public 2021.11.01 2022.06.30 Recueillir des informations de gestion sur chaque contrat conclu en vertu de la loi sur la passation des marchés de biens, travaux et services avec des fonds publics et locaux, et les rendre accessibles au public en utilisant le format OCDS. 2021.11.01 2023.06.30 Renforcer les systèmes de responsabilité des marchés publics, introduire l'indicateur RED FLAG et le rendre ouvert au public. 2021.11.01 2022.06.30 Les clients et les soumissionnaires sont engagés dans des consultations publiques en menant des activités d'information et de communication sur les systèmes numériques de passation des marchés et en évaluant les progrès dans la surveillance et le contrôle de ceux-ci. 2022.02.01 2022.12.01

Examen du plan d'action

Commitment 3. Public Engagement in Public Procurement

Pour une description complète de l'engagement, voir l'engagement 3 dans Plan d'action de la Mongolie 2021-2023.

Contexte et objectifs:

According to GAN Integrity, Mongolia’s public procurement process faces high corruption risks of bribes, irregular payments, and conflicts of interest. In recent years, the Independent Authority Against Corruption, journalists, and activists have reported many breaches of public procurement rules. This commitment is led by the State Procurement Agency and is the only commitment in the action plan initiated by a government agency. It builds on the previous action plan, which progressed efforts to open access to online procurement data. This commitment aligns with the OGP value of transparency, as it aims to include a clause supporting open data principles in the Bill to Amend the Law on Procurement of Goods, Works and Services with State and Local Funds. It aims to fully digitize the public procurement process and introduce a new measure to limit awarding bids to companies with high corruption risks. Consistent with the value of civic participation, it includes efforts to increase citizens’ engagement in evaluating procurement bids and hence improve public oversight of the process.

Potentiel de résultats: Substantiel

To reduce misallocation of public funds, this commitment addresses gaps in citizen oversight of the public procurement process. Prior to this commitment, the contract transparency website publicly posted tenders online, accepted online bid proposal submissions, and listed entities that won tenders and copies of contracts. Some paper-based bids were submitted manually and uploaded in a scanned non-machine-readable format. The process for awarding bids did not include citizens and was not sufficiently digitized to systematically cross-check bidders against criteria like those set by the Independent Authority Against Corruption. As a result, some companies won bids for which they were ineligible. No information was available on the contract transparency website regarding contract implementation.

In order to address these issues, this commitment plans to systematize Mongolia’s public procurement process and widen opportunities for public oversight. In an interview with the IRM, the State Procurement Agency reported that it aims to stop accepting paper-based bids. With all bids available in a machine-readable format, it intends to introduce a system that automatically filters out bids using “red flag indicators” that signal noncompliance with criteria set by the Independent Authority Against Corruption. They would draw on data indicating corruption risks from government reports, beneficial ownership reports, public audits, and other data sources. This systematization of bid evaluation could help minimize misallocation of public procurement funds. Through this commitment, the State Procurement Agency also reported plans to form citizen-led groups to serve as their counterpart in evaluating procurement bids, which could improve the accountability of the procurement process (although this is not clearly delineated in the commitment text). Additionally, the commitment envisions uploading information on contract implementation to the contract transparency website, in compliance with the Open Contracting Data Standard, which could facilitate public and civil society monitoring of procurement projects. These measures would be supported by planned amendment of the procurement law, introducing clauses on transparency and open data principles.

Opportunités, défis et recommandations pendant la mise en œuvre

The positive engagement of the State Procurement Agency in the open government process offers an opportunity to ambitiously implement this commitment’s initiatives. However, the State Procurement Agency has not identified civil society partners for implementation. Additionally, it may be difficult to fully eliminate paper-based bid submissions from the public procurement process, given continued internet access gaps in Mongolia. To support this commitment’s potential on the public procurement process, the IRM recommends the following:

Rapport de résultats

Commitment 3. Public engagement in procurement

Agence d'exécution: State Procurement Agency of the Ministry of Finance

Contexte et objectifs

This commitment intended to digitize the public procurement process and introduce a red flag indicator to limit awarding bids to companies with high corruption risks. It also planned to raise public awareness of the online procurement system and evaluate its use in public oversight of government procurement. These efforts aimed to address the high corruption risks faced by Mongolia’s public procurement process. The commitment built on the previous action plan, which progressed efforts to open access to online procurement data. Led by the State Procurement Agency, this was the only commitment in the action plan initiated by a government agency.

Early Results: Significant

This commitment achieved significant results on opening the public procurement process. Half of its milestones were completed, while the other half made substantial progress. It strengthened systematic publication of procurement data, which could be used to monitor any irregularities. It also improved the availability of Mongolia’s public procurement information by progressing the transition to digital bid submission and cataloging of data on tender.gov.mn. The Democracy Education Center particularly noted the State Procurement Agency’s strong leadership in the process of making procurement data accessible online, despite the issues inhibiting the overall coordination of action plan implementation.

To strengthen the legal basis for digitizing and increasing public participation in procurement, the Ministry of Finance created a government-civil society working group to review existing regulations. The working group produced an amendment proposal on the Procurement of Goods, Works, and Services with State and Local Property Funds Law, which parliament approved in June 2023. The amendment introduced provisions intended to reduce human error in procurement, such as a mandate to create an electronic bidder database, transparency measures in the bid selection process, prevention of conflicts of interest, and creation of working groups to evaluate government tenders.

Procurement data are made available for public access on the tender.gov.mn portal, where information of tender invitations, lists of bidders (including prohibited ones), contract winners, and delivery of contracts are published regularly. Previously, information on tenders and bidders was published on separate systems. The integration means that verified bidders can now submit their bids online via the portal. The development of an electronic catalog of procurement data dating back to 2018 was also completed, although it had not been publicly launched by the end of the implementation period.

In line with IRM recommendations, the design of the portal’s user interface and experience were significantly improved. For example, when looking up an invitation to tender, users can now search by categories such as date, name of tender, portfolio manager, and category of work as specified in the amended procurement law. The Open Society Forum notes that the portal also hyperlinks to procurement data in the Open Contracting Data Standard format, although many return an error message when clicked. Information on the portal saw a significant increase by the end of the implementation period. As of July 2023, over 17,000 tender invitations were published on the integrated system—constituting all government tenders carried out during the action plan implementation period. Over 286,000 tender references had been downloaded, illustrating a high level of user engagement.

The commitment also made progress on public accountability mechanisms. Its intended red flag indicator was under development by the end of the implementation period. To inform its development, during the integration of the tender and bidder systems, the State Procurement Agency collected data and solicited feedback on irregularities from bidders and citizens. The agency also launched the opendata.tender.gov.mn portal to give citizens access to the application programming interface (API) of the tender.gov.mn portal, which means that tender data can now be reused for public monitoring purposes. The Authority of Government Supervisory was created in early 2023 to oversee the handling of public complaints and carry out independent oversight of government budget use and public service delivery, including government contracting. The newly formed body was still in the process of developing a new draft monitoring and evaluation policy by the end of the action plan cycle.

According to the Ministry of Finance, the commitment has helped mitigate corruption risk. Digitization of the procurement process allows relevant stakeholders to check and verify information such as social insurance, court decisions, bidder certification, equipment feasibility, labor safety measures, and the bidder’s track record. Public checking of bid winner documentation has also begun. As of July 2023, 1,921 out of 34,443 documents submitted by 1,891 bidders that won government contracts had passed public checking. Additionally, trained procurement officers conduct public consultations via a government hotline that has amassed over 25,000 minutes of recorded phone conversations as well as over 3,800 email inquiries—indicating an institutionalized approach toward making this practice sustainable. This practice allows citizens to have a direct role in ensuring that government contracts are compliant with proper procedures. Findings of any irregularities can be used to reveal potential misconduct or human errors in the public procurement process. In parallel, journalists and civil society organizations have made use of the expanded procurement information in anti-corruption efforts. For instance, the Mongolian Data Club uncovered links between suppliers and 535 public officials and politicians.

Regard vers l'avenir

Public procurement is vulnerable to corruption risks, especially due to bribery and payment irregularity in the awarding of government contracts. While digitizing the procurement process and introducing open data standards help mitigate the risks, these efforts need to be mainstreamed across government practices. For example, the government could aim for more ambitious reform by extending the scope of transparency and public oversight to include post-tender processes such as contract delivery, payment release, and evaluation of completed work.

The passing of the National Anti-Corruption Program in June 2023 lends itself to building greater momentum toward this objective as it emphasizes the need for an anti-corruption strategy—including in public procurement—to align with international standards. In their assessment of Mongolia’s public procurement systems, the Asian Development Bank noted a pressing need to update existing regulations around standard bidding documents at the central level, and regulate and monitor public procurement activities in both central and local governments.