Transparency in Government Procurement
The WTO Working Group on Transparency in Government Procurement (WGTGP) was established at the Second WTO Ministerial Conference held in Singapore, December 1996
“to conduct a study on transparency in government procurement practices, taking into account national policies, and, based on this study, to develop elements for inclusion in an appropriate agreement”.
Since the establishment of the WGTGP members have examined twelve proposed elements of a future agreement:
- Definition and scope of government procurement
- Procurement methods
- Publication of information on national legislation and procedures
- Information on procurement opportunities, tendering and qualification procedures
- Time-periods
- Transparency of decisions on qualification
- Transparency of decisions on contract awards
- Domestic review procedures
- Other matters related to transparency (e.g. record keeping, language)
- Information to be provided to other governments (notification)
- WTO dispute settlement procedures
- Technical cooperation and special and differential treatment for developing countries.
Australia sees benefit in multilateral rules on this issue. They would provide a fairer and more transparent arrangement for government procurement, which would serve to improve the access of Australian suppliers to information about procurement opportunities in other countries.
Members were unable to agree on whether or not to launch negotiations on transparency in government procurement at the Fifth WTO Ministerial Conference in Cancún in September 2003. At the July 2004 General Council meeting, consensus was reached that transparency in government procurement, along with the other Singapore issues of investment and competition policy would be excluded from the Doha Round of trade negotiations and would be relegated to the WTO working groups.