Public procurement is a notorious risk area for corruption and other unfair business practices all over the world – including in Bulgaria, where diverse stakeholders are now coming together to find a practical solution to corruption risks in public tenders that works for all parties.

One solution they are discussing is a High-Level Reporting Mechanism. In essence, this is a channel to raise and quickly resolve alerts about suspected bribery or unfair business practices in public tenders.

The concept of the HLRM was developed and continues to be advanced by the Basel Institute on Governance and OECD as a form of anti-corruption Collective Action. These types of Collective Action tools and approaches are a crucial ingredient when it comes to improving business integrity and strengthening transparency and accountability between the public and private sectors, supported by civil society.

Bringing business, government and other parties to the table

To bring relevant stakeholders to the table on this topic, the Basel Institute on Governance hosted a Collective Action Business Consultation in Sofia, Bulgaria, on 13 May 2024.

The Consultation provided a structured trust-building process to align efforts and discuss the design and implementation of an HLRM. It had the full support of the Mayor of the City of Sofia, Vassil Terziev, who made opening remarks and emphasised his commitment to making Sofia a more transparent municipality.

The event was held in collaboration with the Bulgarian Public Procurement Agency, the Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association, the Bulgarian-Swiss Chamber of Commerce as well as the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham). As part of a holistic programme of support to the Bulgarian Government, the event was funded the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).

All agree: time to test novel approaches to safeguard procurement

Representatives from both government and the business community united around the idea of establishing regular business consultations with the government in order to introduce new mechanisms that boost transparency and accountability, reduce corruption and consequently increase competition in public procurement processes.

Participants exchanged their views on opportunities and challenges for introducing an HLRM in Bulgaria to create a more effective public procurement system beneficial to everyone (except the corrupt!). Among other things, they agreed:

• Mechanisms that help improve trust and transparency, such as the HLRM, are key to enhancing the confidence of companies in public procurement processes.
• There is broad and multi-stakeholder support for piloting an HLRM in public procurement – now this needs to be tested in a specific project.
• Opportunities for testing innovative approaches to improve public procurement exist at the regional and municipal levels as well as at the national level.

Learn more

Read the summary report, including full takeaways, photos and quotes from the distinguished participants.