Improving Public Procurement in Puerto Rico: Leveraging Information and Communication Technologies to Enhance Transparency
Government procurement in Puerto Rico is responsible for some of the highest levels of spending in the economy. With that scale, complex and dysfunctional procurement can be eating up management time and money that could be better used elsewhere. The Commonwealth must modernize and improve its procurement systems to satisfy the citizens' needs and safeguard the public interest. A necessity to get the maximum value of government purchases is having a single procurement policy, better technology, and transparency requirements.
Moving forward
The government should integrate information and communication technologies to replace and redesign paper-based procurement processes at all agencies. The FOMB recommends a Single Procurement Portal to handle all government purchases. Once all processes are systematized, an interface should be created for the public, where much of the information associated with government purchases is made available on a centralized website. By instituting best practices in procurement, the Commonwealth can save tax money, make better use of public resources, deliver better public goods and services, boost integrity, and prevent fraud and corruption.
Click below to read more on the latest essay by Arnaldo Cruz, from the Oversight Board's Research and Policy Department.