Reverse Auctions In Bangalore, India: Bringing Transparency and Savings to Government - and Denying Politicians Their "Cuts"

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Gotta give credit to my friend Jason Busch at SpendMatters (http://www.spendmatters.com/) for nailing what might be the unspoken reason why some elected and appointed officials in governments around the world are so reluctant to introduce reverse auctions and REAL competition into their procurement processes. Yes, graft!

Read his take on the matter here:
Spend Matters: A Case for eProcurement in Government Purchasing -- Denying Politicians Their Take!
Jason references what is a truly fascinating piece from a news outlet I must admit I don't check everyday, the Bangalore Mirror (http://www.bangaloremirror.com/).

In this piece by S Kushala, the author chronicles how local councilmen in Bangalore were coming to grip with the fact that with e-procurement and reverse auctions bringing transparency and accountability to their governmental purchasing, they were suddenly losing their "cuts":

"With the e-procurement platform in place, the BBMP (Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike) had bade goodbye to manual tenders. Any project above Rs 10 lakh has to be tendered online. This ensures transparency and accountability and does not allow interference from councillors or officials during the bidding process.

And this is where it has pinched them the most. It’s an open secret that work tender means money. And no contractor can bag a project without giving “cuts” to corporators and some officials."

Alas, it sounds like the forces of openness and cost savings have been unleashed in Bangalore, and that it will be hard for even the most motivated of local officials to be able to "turn back the clock" and go back to the days of back-room deals and "cuts."

So kudos to these Indian leaders (and to Jason for bringing it to our attention!). Let's hope that this Bangalore story can stand as a lesson learned for officials all over the world that reverse auctioning and modern e-procurement strategies are indeed a global trend with lots of momentum in this time of tight budgets and calls for increased transparency in government operations all around the globe!

David


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