CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN POLITICAL ECONOMY PUBLIC PROCUREMENT REFORM AND GOVERNANCE IN AFRICA EDITED BY S.N. NYECK Contemporary African Political Economy Series Editor Eunice   N. Sahle University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill USA Bangor ,   United Kingdom Contemporary African Political Economy (CAPE) publishes social science research that examines the intersection of political, social, and economic processes in contemporary Africa. The series is distinguished especially by its focus on the spatial, gendered, and cultural dimensions of these pro- cesses, as well as its emphasis on promoting empirically situated research. As consultancy-driven work has emerged in the last two decades as the dominant model of knowledge production about African politics and economy, CAPE offers an alternate intellectual space for scholarship that challenges theoretical and empirical orthodoxies and locates political and economic processes within their structural, historical, global, and local contexts. As an interdisciplinary series, CAPE broadens the fi eld of tra- ditional political economy by welcoming contributions from the fi elds of Anthropology, Development Studies, Geography, Health, Law, Political Science, Sociology and Women's and Gender Studies. The Series Editor and Advisory Board particularly invite submissions focusing on the follow- ing thematic areas: urban processes; democracy and citizenship; agrarian structures, food security, and global commodity chains; health, education, and development; environment and climate change; social movements; immigration and African diaspora formations; natural resources, extrac- tive industries, and global economy; media and socio-political processes; development and globalization; and confl ict, displacement, and refugees. Advisory   Board Bertha O. Koda , University of Dar es Salaam , Tanzania Brij   Maharaj , University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa , Th andika Mkandawire , London School of Economics and Political Science , UK James   Murombedzi , Council for the Development of Social Research in Africa , Senegal John   Pickles , the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill , USA Wisdom   J. Tettey , University of British Columbia , Canada More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/14915 S.N. Nyeck Editor Public Procurement Reform and Governance in Africa Editor S.N. Nyeck Clarkson University Potsdam , New York, USA Contemporary African Political Economy ISBN 978-1-137-52136-1 ISBN 978-1-137-52137-8 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-52137-8 Library of Congress Control Number: 2016938060 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2 016 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifi cally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfi lms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specifi c statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the pub- lisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Cover image © blickwinkel / Alamy Stock Photo Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Nature America Inc. New York F OREWORD When I fi rst began to study African politics some 40 odd years ago, I was struck by the intersection between tradition and modernity. Even as African societies were being modernized and rapidly transformed, tradi- tional values and institutions continued to have a great deal of relevance and impact. Colonial administrations had given way to independent African-led governments with a mandate for rapid modernization in all aspects of life. At the same time, these new governments lacked the capac- ity and the available resources to fulfi ll this task. They had to continue to rely on the munifi cence of their former colonizers and on loans and grants from private sources to provide them with the rents needed to fulfi ll the most basic functions of governance. As a consequence, govern- ing elites found themselves “caught between a rock and a hard place.” In the words of former Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere, “In order to run, we fi rst had to walk.” They wanted to preside over developmen- tal states, countries capable of self-sustaining development that were free of the vestiges of European domination, and institutions or states that were carbon copies of those that characterized the West. Yet, as eminent African scholars like Claude Ake and Thandika Mkandawire have shown, even after the formal end of European colonialism, African states were unable to set their own development agendas. They remained extremely dependent on Western capital and expertise as well as on political and economic strategies d ictated by foreign agents. Nowhere was this more apparent than in the involvement of African governments in the process of public procurement. v vi FOREWORD S.N. Nyeck, for as long as I have known her, has been intrigued by two burning sets of questions: (1) “In their interactions with the European colonialists, were African elites and African people in general mere pawns, with no agency, simply available to be manipulated by those who sought to dominate and exploit them? Or, did Africans consistently attempt to assert their own human agency?” (2) “In the post-independence era, why have African societies been unable to develop institutions that enable them to take full advantage of their material wealth and human capital to spread the greatest good to the greatest number among them on a predictable and sustained basis? And, what are the keys to prosperity in independent Africa?” In an effort to answer the fi rst set of questions, S.N. Nyeck produced a fi rst rate Ph.D. dissertation that allowed her to creatively unpack the com- plex interaction between the colonial powers and the African people they exploited. She was able to clearly demonstrate signifi cant and effective African agency through a political–historical analysis of procurement prac- tices of African elites during the colonial era in their dealings with foreign public and private entities. What remained to be addressed, however, was an understanding of the prospects and pitfalls of development associated with underdevelopment in the post-colonial period, particularly as this relates to the issue of public procurement. This is perhaps t he most impor- tant aspect of development and underdevelopment in Africa today. Yet it has escaped the attention of most students of African political economy. The present volume represents a major breakthrough in this regard. What is also remarkable about this important book is the fact that its contribu- tors represent an eclectic array of intellectuals from not only the social sciences (i.e., political science, public administration, political economy) but also from fi elds such as urban and regional planning, policy analy- sis, business, and the legal profession. This volume’s interdisciplinarity/ multidisciplinarity seems most appropriate for understanding the complex nature of public procurement policy in contemporary Africa. In most African countries, public procurement accounts for a high proportion—often between 30 and 70 %—of total government expendi- tures. Despite being so heavily involved in the procurement process, most African states do not presently have well-functioning public procurement systems. At independence, they generally lacked well-established public procurement foundations and simply relied on the institutions serving this or similar functions that existed under the colonial regime. They did not possess suffi cient professional knowledge and expertise in the purchasing FOREWORD vii and contracting functions at the national or subnational levels, nor did they possess rules, regulations, and laws that made it imperative that governing elites, supported by rationally based bureaucratic institutions, adhere to the rule of law and avoid getting into the habits of petty and grand corrup- tion. To go along with this bad governance, a tendency toward predation in many places set in. As governing elites were not held accountable by an electorate, civil society, or constitutional imperatives, they often operated with impunity. In the past two decades and a half, there has emerged throughout the developing world a growing interest in public procurement reform. In this book, S.N. Nyeck and her colleagues take note of this trend and critically analyze the current state of public procurement reform in Africa. They not only note some major shortcomings that still exist such as corruption and mismanagement but also highlight some signifi cant progress that is being made. For example, new laws curbing the discretionary powers of what are cynically referred to in society at large as “imperial presidents”; and enhanced monitoring of political and economic actors by African leg- islatures and judiciaries as well as by an increasingly attentive and active civil society. African civil society has been emboldened as never before as a result of rising levels of formal education and the widespread availability of information on the internet. New modes of communication energize civil society via social media. It is clear that public procurement policy reform in Africa is still very much a “work in progress” and that “one size” does not fi t all. Most countries still need to fi nd ways of harmonizing emerging national pro- curement standards with the practice of procurement policy at the sub- national level. In addition, central and local authorities need to become much more effective at enforcing rules and regulations, and more profes- sional administrators need to be trained and steeped in the habits of best practices in the execution of their responsibilities. This book is grounded in a clear understanding of the objectives of the procurement reform movement in Africa today. Among the outcomes being pursued are the basic features of good governance: effi ciency, effec- tiveness, accountability, transparency, a reduction in public corruption, and an adherence to the rule of law. Good governance is promoted by the efforts on the part of the state and the private sector to train and utilize a professional cadre of staff that understand and judiciously apply the e ssential features of a well-managed and well-functioning public pro- curement system. The contributors to this volume repeatedly emphasize viii FOREWORD the critical importance of credible commitments for needed procurement policy reforms at the highest political levels. Embedded throughout the book, particularly in the contributions by S.N. Nyeck herself, is the question of whether democracy and freedom should be seen as public goods that must be protected at all cost by the state, particularly as this relates to public procurement policies in the rap- idly changing politico-economic contexts of African societies. This chang- ing context has revealed yet another challenge to the state in its pursuit of freedom and democracy—outsourcing. Outsourcing is viewed by its proponents as a way to provide public goods through contracting with entities in the private sector. Recent pro- curement reformers have argued for the introduction of innovative fi nanc- ing schemes including outsourcing and public–private partnerships as new tools of governance. Yet, there is scant evidence that this has signifi cant benefi cial results in alleviating social inequalities and poverty. Some critics argue that outsourcing in fact undermines the pursuit of good governance in that it opens the way for corruption and the continued lack of transpar- ency and accountability at the highest levels of authority. This is an issue that is grappled with in several of the pieces in this volume, and it is likely to grow in importance in the near future. Edmond J. Keller Research Professor, University of California-Los Angeles Author, Identity, Citizenship and Political Confl ict in Africa (2014) Los Angeles, CA C ONTENTS 1 Introduction 1 S. N. Nyeck Part I P rocurement and Governance: Historical Precedents and Theoretical Refl ections 2 9 2 The Implicit Dimensions of Public Procurement Contracts: African History and Debates 3 1 S. N. Nyeck 3 Why Do Some African Countries Negotiate Unfair Natural Resource Contracts? 5 1 Chrysantus Ayangafac , Dassa Bulcha , and Sehen Bekele Part II Public Procurement and Institutional Transformation 75 4 Procurement Policy Subversion in Contracts Between South African Retailers and Suppliers 7 7 Marlese von Broembsen ix