GPPA wraps up training of suppliers, contractors in LRR

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.