The
Gambia Public Procurement Authority (GPPA) on Thursday concluded a three-day
training on procurement for suppliers and contractors in Mansakonko.
African
Development Bank through the Institutional Support for Economic and Financial
Governance project funded the training, held at the regional education centre
in Mansakonko.
It
was attended by about 100 small medium enterprises in order to expose them to
the legal and regulatory framework and ethics in public procurement, bidding,
and GPPA registration requirements for suppliers.
A
participant, Saikou Saidy, a caterer from Basse, said the training was “very
helpful” as it exposed them to a lot of things which they do not know about
procurement before.
“The
forum was so educative; we now know the basic principles of procurement and
functions, roles and responsibilities of GPPA,” he said.
Mr
Saidy said the interaction and exchange of ideas during the training was “very
much helpful”, calling on other participants to share the knowledge gained
during the three days.
Lamin
K. Barrow, senior training officer at GPPA, said the project under which the
training was organised is geared towards rendering support in terms of capacity
building and provision of certain equipment to some institutions, including the
GPPA, across The Gambia.
He
said the training was the first activity that GPPA conducted under the African
Development Bank-funded project. The
training was to capacitise SMEs from Upper River, Central River, Lower River,
and North Bank regions.
Mr
Barrow said the lessons learnt during the training were “very useful”,
commending the participants for their commitment during the forum.
Lalo
Danso, director of procurement policy and operation at GPPA, said through the
support of African Development Bank, GPPA is to train about 300 suppliers
throughout The Gambia.
The
majority of those to be trained are those in rural Gambia and Mr Danso said
this is because provincial suppliers lack capacity compared to urban suppliers.
Kebba
Sallah, director of GPPA, said GPPA is continuously engaged in training to
ensure that all the stakeholders understand procurement process and the laws
governing it.
He
said they would soon conduct a similar training in West Coast Region and KMC.
