PPCC Ends Nat’l Procurement Forum
The date was Wednesday, February 27, 2008 when the Public Procurement and Concessions Commission (PPCC) in collaboration with the World Bank, began a two-day annual procurement forum at the
The forum was held on the Theme: Public Procurement and Concessions Reform in
Part II, Number Five of the Act that established the Public Procurement and Concessions Commission, under the sub-title: Functions of the Commission, calls for the holding of an annual procurement forum with the aim of discussing status of the PPCC work.
With the huge presence of key personalities including panelists and participants from various ministries and agencies of the Liberian Government, business community and civil society, the forum got underway firstly with captivating speeches and remarks, notable among them were the ones made by the keynote speaker Yarsuo Weh-Dorlaie, Commissioner Charles E. Collins, Sr., World Bank Lead Procurement Specialist Amadu Tidiane Toure.
Nearly all of the speakers, though with some variations in their speeches, underscored the need to improve and strengthen procurement activities in the country as a way of ensuring transparency, independence and credibility in decisions that are made in terms of economic and efficient use of public funds in public procurement. They also underscored the need for a vigorous approach aimed at institutionalizing procurement in
Other speakers and panelists including Budget Director Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan, Lands, Mines and Energy Minister Dr. Eugene Shannon, Planning and Economic Affairs Minister Dr. Toga McIntosh, among others also delivered papers at the two-day procurement forum. They recounted their experiences with the implementation of the Public Procurement and Concession Act and hailed the Public Procurement and Concessions Commission for its vigilance in ensuring that compliance with the Public Procurement and Concession Act of Liberia is regulated and monitored.
They, like their counterparts, called for continued budgetary support to the Commission so as to achieve its objective which is very keen on the economic and efficient use of public funds in public procurement.
Delivering his paper at the start of the forum on the Theme: PPCC Progress Report on the Public Procurement Reform Program of Liberia, the Commissionís Executive Director Joseph S. Neufville, cited the numerous achievements of the PPCC including the distribution of the Act, publication of the PPCC Bulletin(The Alert), issuance of several press releases, development of training manual and modules, conduct of 17 sensitization and training workshops for 914 participants including procurement committee members, procurement unit members, county level officials and private sector.
He also named the putting in place of procuring structure at procuring entities, provision of assistance to all entities requesting assistance in preparing procurement documents, development of ground rules for functioning of the Complaints, Appeals and Review Panel(CARP), Constitution and induction of the Complaints, Appeals and Review Panel, preparation of a three-year strategic action plan for the Commission, preparation of annual work plan and quarterly progress report, among others as the basic achievements of the PPCC.
On the issue of challenges confronting the PPCC, the head of the PPCC Secretariat named the seeming resistance to change; limited logistics to carry out holistic operation of PPCC activities; the absence of Regulation & Procedural Step-by-Step Manual; and the arbitrary replacement of procurement staff after training with untrained staff.
At the end of the forum, the participants recommended that the amount of $2000 in the thresholds be increased to $5000.00 in shopping methods, national competitive bidding time be reduced from four weeks to two weeks and international competitive bidding from six weeks to four weeks, the provisions for Restricted Bidding as contained on Sections 51 and 100 of the Act which required five bidders be reduced to three.
The participants further recommended that Public Procurement and Concession Commission (PPCC), in collaboration with LIBA, should assess the training needs of Liberian businesses and provide training to enable them compete with other businesses in the procurement business, the PPCC should be provided with adequate and requisite logistics to work effectively, all Procurement practitioners of Government Ministries and Agencies should participate in PPCC workshops and printed materials/handouts be made available to participants, evaluation and follow-ups be made after each training session to assess the impact on participants, the capacity of the Liberian Business Association be built to effect Margin of Preference.
They also recommended that in keeping with Section 29, Sub-Sections (1)-(5) of the Act creating the Procurement Units, PPCC should develop regulations that would protect the procurement officers in the implementation of the PPCA and devise means to encourage the retention of trained procurement staff, a Board of Inquiry be created to investigate arbitrary removals of procurement officers, Procuring Entities should include procurement directors in budget planning to enable them to develop adequate procurement plans and programs, the number of end-users on Procurement Committees should be increased and the number of senior staff reduced.
On the issue of the Manual and Regulations, the participants advanced the following recommendations: That the Procedural Step-by-Step Manual should be clear and consistent with the PPCA, Regulations to the PPCA should evolve from consultation with stake holders and made user friendly, define penalties for violators of the PPCA and develop enforcement mechanisms for PPCC policies and guidelines, there is need for clarity on the distinction between Domestic Business and Liberian Business.
