Research Paper on Significance of Procurement and Integrity Act

On behalf of public authority, the procurement of services and goods is referred to as public procurement, public tendering or government procurement, like, an agency of the government. At both the international and domestic levels, the government procurement is of great economic importance, as an important proportion of national GDP is accounted for by it. A substantial part of the global economy is accounted for by government procurement with twenty percent and fifteen percent of GDP in developing and developed countries. Less or more the government procurement is regulated closely by the law of most countries in order to prevent local protectionism, corruption, waste or fraud. The principles of non-discrimination and transparency are embodied by a well-regulated government procurement system. International trade is facilitated by it and in public purchasing, the optimal value for money is provided by it. For a variety of reasons, restrictions are placed on government procurement of both services and goods by many countries. Limited domestic service industries are maintained by some developing countries.

A number of criminal, civil, administrative and contractual penalties are set out by the act. These are imposed on contractors and individuals who have violated the act. For both contractors and individuals, these penalties are quite severe. Therefore, the requirements and prohibitions imposed by the act must be quite understandable by contractors and individuals who are involved in government contracting. Five years imprisonment and some fines are included within the criminal penalties, if a competitive advantage is provided to anyone or if anything of value or sensitive information has been exchanged in the award of a federal agency procurement contract.

For each violation, a civil penalty of fifty thousand dollars is imposed on the individuals and a civil penalty of five hundred thousand dollars is imposed on the organization. For each violation, the company, the business unit or an individual can be suspended (Williams, 2009). According to the act, proper actions in terms of government’s interests can be taken by the government, the contract can be rescinded or void by the government and proper contractual remedies may be affected by government, like, forfeiture or profit recapture. Also, the government may take other proper actions in terms of its interests. Moreover, the affected offeror may get disqualified by it and the procurement may get cancelled by it.