Awa Ndoye: Externalisation Marchés Publics Sénégal for Performance

• Awa Ndoye, a finance specialist and former UEMOA Court of Auditors Secretary-General, advocates for externalizing certain public procurement functions in Senegal to boost performance.
• Her book, "Externalisation des marchés publics: un levier d’impact et de performance pour l’action publique au Sénégal," details her proposal, which aims for efficiency beyond mere legal compliance.
• Ndoye clarifies that externalization involves using specialized teams for technical tasks, not privatizing public contracts or transferring state responsibility.
• She cites past Senegalese programs (PUDC, MCA) and international examples (UK, US, Kenya, South Africa) as precedents, urging adaptation rather than direct replication.
• The proposal seeks to transform public decisions into concrete citizen achievements faster by reducing non-value-adding delays through better planning, professionalization, and digital tools.

The ultimate goal, she argues, is to accelerate the transformation of public decisions into tangible achievements that benefit citizens directly, moving beyond mere compliance to genuine impact.

Awa Ndoye, a distinguished specialist in administration and finance, is advocating for a strategic shift in how public procurement is managed in Senegal, emphasizing performance as the critical next frontier. Her perspective, detailed in her book "Externalisation des marchés publics: un levier d’impact et de performance pour l’action publique au Sénégal," suggests that while significant strides have been made in transparency, competition, and procedural harmonization within the UEMOA space, the current challenge lies in optimizing the effectiveness of public spending.

Ndoye, who previously served as the Secretary-General of the UEMOA Court of Auditors, articulated these views in an interview published on Thursday, September 24, 2026, in Le Soleil, penned by journalist Oumar Fedior. She posits that merely adhering to legal procedures is insufficient if public needs are not met promptly. The ultimate goal, she argues, is to accelerate the transformation of public decisions into tangible achievements that benefit citizens directly, moving beyond mere compliance to genuine impact.

At the core of Ndoye's proposal is the strategic externalisation of specific functions related to public procurement. She clarifies that this approach is not intended to circumvent established rules or to transfer the state's fundamental responsibility for public contracts to the private sector. Instead, the State must retain its full oversight and accountability. The concept involves empowering administrative bodies to judiciously engage specialized teams capable of executing certain technical procedures with greater expertise and within more controlled timelines.

This model would enable government administrations to concentrate their efforts on core strategic missions, while simultaneously leveraging dedicated external expertise for increasingly technical procurement functions. Ndoye points to existing precedents within Senegal, citing experiences from major programs such as the PUDC and the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA), which have successfully utilized various forms of external support or specialized assistance. She proposes drawing lessons from these past initiatives to develop a more structured and enduring institutional framework for future implementation of externalisation.

Despite notable advancements in public procurement systems across Senegal and the broader UEMOA region concerning transparency, competition, and procedural alignment, Ndoye highlights a persistent gap in overall performance. She contends that the true efficiency of public procurement, or performance commande publique Sénégal, must be evaluated across its entire lifecycle, encompassing planning, project programming and maturity, dossier preparation, the capabilities of involved actors, control mechanisms, execution monitoring, and adherence to payment deadlines. A legally compliant process, she stresses, loses its value if it fails to deliver on the underlying public need in a timely manner.

Ndoye also references international experiences, noting that countries like the United Kingdom, the United States, Kenya, and South Africa have experimented with various forms of externalization or specialization in public procurement functions. France, too, employs specialized competencies within its institutional framework. However, she cautions against simply replicating these foreign models. Instead, she advocates for a careful adaptation of successful practices to align with Senegal's unique legal, institutional, and administrative landscape, ensuring that robust control and accountability mechanisms are simultaneously established.

Ndoye firmly believes that externalisation, when properly framed, transparently implemented, and confined to areas where it genuinely enhances performance, can serve as a powerful instrument for professionalizing and modernizing public action. She underscores that the objective is not to create an opposition between established procedures and efficiency; rather, rules remain indispensable for safeguarding transparency, fostering competition, and ensuring the judicious use of public resources. The focus should instead be on identifying and eliminating delays that do not contribute value to the process.

To this end, she suggests that improvements in planning, more meticulously prepared dossiers, the professionalization of all involved actors, a more efficient organization of work, and an increased adoption of digital tools could collectively contribute to significantly reducing existing delays. Her vision ultimately calls for a comprehensive reforme passation marchés Sénégal that leverages strategic externalisation to build a more responsive and effective public procurement system, capable of delivering concrete results for the citizenry.

Lawyers advising on public procurement in Senegal should monitor discussions around Awa Ndoye's proposal for strategic outsourcing, as it signals potential future reforms aimed at enhancing performance and efficiency in public contracts. This could lead to new institutional frameworks or regulatory changes impacting tender processes, contract management, and compliance requirements for private sector participants.

Source: Original reporting via Le Soleil