The World Bank, and upon the request of the Ministry of Finance, recently published an assessment of Lebanon’s Public Procurement System using the Methodology for Assessing Procurement Systems (MAPSII). In detail, the MAPSII is comprised of four pillars, namely legal, regulatory and policy framework (Pillar 1), institutional framework and management capacity (Pillar 2), public procurement & market practices and accountability (Pillar 3), integrity and transparency of public procurement system (Pillar 4) with said pillars allocated over 14 main indicators and 55 sub-indicators (a total of 210 criteria). Accordingly, the World Bank review attempted to compare Lebanon’s current procurement situation with the aforementioned criteria, assessing gaps in the process. The World Bank pointed out, however, that one main challenge that was encountered in the process is the lack of effective access to complete and accurate data. As far as results are concerned, the World Bank pointed to Lebanon’s poor performance, with 57.14% of the 210 criteria being substantially not met and another 33.81% being only partially met as highlighted by the below table: 

Always on the findings front, the report commented that as far as Pillar 1 is concerned, the report commented that the prevailing regulatory environment is very general and limited in scope in some instances, noting that the primary current legislation consists of the Public Accounting Law (1963) and the Tender Regulation (1959). Said legal framework, however, does not include all public entities and allows for several vaguely defined exceptions. On the Pillar 2 front, the report commented that the prevailing institutional framework is “incomplete and incoherent”, lacking a policy making & regulatory framework and an e-procurement environment, with links between public procurement and other aspects of public financial management being deemed as weak and ineffective. As far as procurement operations are concerned (Pillar 3), the report unveiled that procurement plans are not prepared and published in a systematic manner, leaving the market sometimes uninformed about planned procurement operations. In addition, the World Bank commented that budgetary pressures necessitate delaying procurement operations. When it comes to Pillar 4, the report uncovered that data on public procurement in Lebanon is scarce and unconsolidated, rendering it difficult for concerned parties to obtain reliable information, spot problems and identify areas of improvement.

In the light of the above findings, the World Bank suggested a set of recommendations for each of the pillars as highlighted below: 

The report stressed on the need to implement the aforementioned reforms, noting that a good public procurement system aids in increasing the effectiveness of public expenditure, guaranteeing timely and quality public services, improving private sector participation in public bids and strengthening investors’ trust and that of the international community. The World Bank also highlighted the next steps needed to accelerate the public procurement reform agenda such as setting the necessary coordination mechanisms for public procurement policy development and implementation, developing a national strategy for public procurement reform in Lebanon based on MAPS, adopting said strategy by the Lebanese government and preparing the political, financial and technical mechanisms to implement said strategy and monitor its execution.