Probity in public procurement and use of public funds

Probity means uprightness and honesty in handling what belongs to others. In government, almost every rupee spent is someone else's money, collected through taxes and held in trust. Procurement — buying goods, works, and services — is where probity is most tested, because it involves large sums, technical specifications that can be written to favour one supplier, and discretion in evaluating bids. A procurement decision that looks technical is therefore also an ethical decision: who gets public money, on what terms, and why.

Sound procurement rests on a few principles that appear in India's General Financial Rules, revised in 2017, and in similar frameworks worldwide. Competition should be genuine, with open advertisement and enough time for bidders to respond. Specifications should describe needs, not a favoured product. Evaluation criteria should be stated in advance and applied consistently. And the whole process should be documented, so that a losing bidder — or a citizen — can see why a winner was chosen. Deviations from these principles, such as splitting a purchase to avoid tender thresholds or repeatedly extending a contract without competition, are classic warning signs.

Several safeguards support these principles. E-procurement portals publish tenders and bids, reducing face-to-face discretion. Integrity pacts, promoted by the Central Vigilance Commission, commit both the buyer and bidders to avoid bribery and allow independent monitoring. Separation of duties ensures that the person who specifies a need, the person who evaluates bids, and the person who pays are not the same. Audit then checks, after the fact, whether money was spent for the purpose intended and at a reasonable price.

Probity also extends beyond procurement to the daily stewardship of funds: claiming only genuine expenses, avoiding wasteful spending at year-end to protect next year's budget, and refusing to use public resources — vehicles, staff time, office facilities — for private purposes. Small misuses matter because they signal to everyone watching that public resources are treated as perks. A culture of probity is built in these ordinary transactions long before any major contract is signed.