An Approach for Developing Integrated Decision Support System Model for Optimizing Contracting Process of Public Procurement in Pakistan

Public procurement expenditure accounts for 45 to 65 percent of a national budget, often equating to at least 15-20 percent of a country's gross domestic product and these estimates are even higher for developing countries like Pakistan. Due to weaknesses in current operational procedures of Public Procurement in Pakistan, it is approximately paying between US$ 31 to US$ 62 Billion more annually than it should be for procuring of goods, works and services. The inefficiency in operations of public procurement like long lead time of process results in funds lapse of allocated budget, which simply indicates the inefficient public funds utility. As the research scope is limited to public procurement of goods so the problem of inefficient public funds utilization will amplify in form of long term forecasts, high level of inventories, high costs, high cost and slow response to end user requirements. Since Public funds are scarce in developing country like Pakistan, so to warrant the efficient use of the resources this research work lays the basis for developing a technical and business model for optimizing the operational delay in public procurement process especially the phase of contracting, as in this phase most time is consumed and it's the most critical of all other phases, especially in public procurement of goods. This will help in developing a model in a software application form, which will act as a decision support system to procurement management to optimize the contracting phase for reduction of wastes in public procurement process, saving millions in government expenditure, act as feedback on future evaluation and positively impact socioeconomic development in Pakistan.