Public procurement is a crucial pillar of service delivery for governments. In Costa Rica, public procurement represents 12.5% of GDP in 2018, which is slightly above the OECD average (11.8% in 2017). Aware of the strategic role that it plays, Costa Rica started the process of reforming its public procurement system to align it with the OECD and international good practices. The public procurement reform was also considered furthermore essential in 2015 when the OECD started the discussions of the accession process with Costa Rica. (*)
Since 2017, the OECD has been collaborating with Costa Rica in supporting its public procurement reform with the financial support of the Embassy of the United Kingdom in Costa Rica, through the following three-phase project:
Phase 1 (September 2017-March 2018): Strengthening transparency in Costa Rica by reviewing exceptions to competitive tenders
Phase 2 (October 2018-May 2019): Reviewing thresholds in the procurement regulatory framework: a comparative analysis across OECD countries
Phase 3 (September 2019 - July 2020): Assessment of key issues to enhance the public procurement system- Supporting Costa Rica in preparing an action plan
(*) On May 2020, the OECD invited Costa Rica to become an OECD Member.
Country: Costa Rica |
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Timeframe: September 2017 – July 2020
Phase 1: September 2017 – March 2018 Phase 2: October 2018 – May 2019 Phase 3: September 2019 - July 2020 |
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Counterparts:
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Areas of focus: |
Phase 1
Phase 2
Phase 3
Costa Rica has been on the process of reforming the regulatory framework of public procurement.
As highlighted in the 2015 OECD Recommendation of the Council on Public Procurement, ensuring broad access to the public procurement market is essential to achieve value for money, as it promotes competition and creates a level playing field.
During the Phase 1 and 2, the OECD supported Costa Rica in analysing two technical elements of the regulatory framework that affect the competition level of a procurement system: i) the exceptions to competitive tendering, and ii) the threshold system in place. The OECD report, Enhancing the Use of Competitive Tendering in Costa Rica's Public Procurement System: Streamlining the exceptions and redesigning the threshold system, provided the options that Costa Rica could consider to reform the regulatory framework related to its exceptions and threshold system. It was used as a key input to prepare the draft of the new public procurement regulatory framework during the regulatory reform process.
In the Phase 3, the OECD supported Costa Rica in preparing the action plan for the following priority areas, identified by the different stakeholders as the most important for a sustainable public procurement system in the future:
The OECD carried out the analysis based on the current public procurement regulatory framework and the draft of the new public procurement law, as well as the results of a survey carried out by the OECD, in February 2020, with different stakeholders (contracting authorities, private sector organisations and civil society organisations). The OECD also organised an open webinar on July 24, 2020, in which 500 people (the maximum capacity of the webinar) made registration. The OECD analysis provides key recommendations that Costa Rica could consider in preparing action plans to enhance public procurement system in the future.