Days before the start of Congress’s ordinary session period, Transparencia Mexicana called for a General Public Procurement Law that would establish common rules for purchasing and contracting across Mexico’s federal and state governments.

The organization identified more than 120 different public procurement procedures across the country — a regulatory patchwork that makes it difficult for small and medium-sized businesses to participate, creating barriers for historically excluded economic actors seeking to compete for government contracts.
Presenting the proposal, Eduardo Bohórquez, Executive Director of Transparencia Mexicana, said that “beyond controlling corruption in public procurement, the country needs to see it as an opportunity to bring new economic actors into the provision of goods and services for government.”

At the federal level alone, procurement and public works spending exceeds two trillion pesos a year. That volume represents not only a significant anti-corruption risk, but also an opportunity to build new productive supply chains, expand competition, and bring more businesses into the public procurement market.

Transparencia Mexicana reported that it is working with about a dozen civil society organizations from across the country to build the first national database of comparative prices for the health, security, education, and energy and transportation sectors.

The tool will make it possible to compare how the same good or service is procured across the federal government and state governments, helping identify price differences and contracting patterns relevant to preventing and detecting corruption risks.

The organization said it will present further details of the proposal in the coming weeks and will seek dialogue with the executive and legislative branches to advance a national discussion on a General Public Procurement Law.