The subject of several criticisms from some business leaders, the management of public procurement in Gabon remains to be perfected. In the National Assembly, for greater efficiency and transparency in this area, the Commission in charge of Economic Affairs is making several recommendations to the transitional government to be implemented as of next year.
n Gabon, the National Assembly of the Transition adopted the 2025 Finance Bill on December 11. For next year, the State budget is set at 4,204.9 billion CFA francs, in balance between resources and expenditure, an increase of 42.9 billion CFA francs compared to 2024. This vote by the transitional deputies was not, however, without them making specific recommendations to the government, particularly in terms of public procurement management. The objective is to enable the administrations concerned by the issue, in particular the General Directorate of Public Procurement (DGMP), to be more efficient and demonstrate greater transparency.
To do this, the Finance, Budget, Public Accounting, Economic Affairs and Production Commission recommends that the government “set up a monthly one-stop shop where all stakeholders in public procurement are present in order to speed up the procedures for validating agreements, simplify administrative procedures while guaranteeing the transparency and competitiveness of offers, and strengthen the training and support of public officials in the management of contracts” .
The transitional deputies also urge the authorities to “modernize tendering procedures by adopting appropriate technologies and digital tools” , while only publication in the daily newspaper L’Union has been adopted to date, this for many years, giving rise to well-founded criticism from several business leaders, particularly those living or traveling outside the country. Another subject of criticism: the abusive use of direct agreement in the context of awarding state contracts. At the Léon-Mba Palace, there is a call for compliance with the provisions of Article 71, paragraph 1 of the Public Procurement Code, which limits the use of direct agreement to 15% of the credits allocated during a budget year.
