Public procurement in Malaysia: objectives and procurement principles

Purpose The objectives of this paper are twofold. Firstly, to examine the importance of Malaysian public procurement objectives and secondly, to investigate the extent to which government suppliers adhere to public procurement principles. Design/methodology/approach For achieving the objectives, a questionnaire survey was used. A total of 250 questionnaires were distributed to government suppliers involved in the government tendering process. In return, a total of 107 useable questionnaires were received, representing a response rate of 42.8%. Descriptive statistics of the means score, standard deviation and mean score ranking were used to analyse the data. Findings The results revealed that the most important public procurement objective is "to ensure a continuous supply of material and services to meet the government needs from the best and reliable sources". On the other hand, the objectives "to expand the local industrial sector by means of transfer of technology and expertise to suit the nation's needs" and "to promote alternative and multiple sourcing through supplier development according to the aspirations and vision of the government" are perceived as not important by the government suppliers. The findings also discovered a moderate level of adherence to Malaysia's public procurement principles, which consist of public accountability, transparency, open and fair competition, fair dealing and value for money. Amongst these principles, the most adhered to is the open and fair competition principle and the least adhered to is the transparency principle. Originality/value This study is one of the few studies that assess the government suppliers' perceptions of public procurement in Malaysia. More importantly, this study may give some ideas to various parties concerning the areas in which improvement is required to ensure that equal importance is given to the public procurement objectives and better adherence to the public procurement principles in Malaysia.