The
department of Public Procurement under the Ministry of Finance and Economic
Affairs in Banjul in collaboration with the Gambia Public Procurement Authority
(GPPA), with technical support from a European Union longterm consultant,
recently organised a four-day training course for procurement actors on public
procurement.
The
course attracted participants from various institutions ranging from
parastatals to government and private sector institutions, and was held at the
Baobab Resort Hotel in Bijilo.
Speaking
at the training session, Lamin K. Barrow, manager career development and
training at GPPA, said the purpose of the training course was to provide
capacity-building for procurement actors within the ministries and project
support units, in a bid to build their capacity in the area of public
procurement.
GPPA
is the oversight institution responsible for monitoring and regulating public
procurement in The Gambia, according to Mr Barrow, and the training came as a
result of the exercise conducted by the head of the procurement office, which
went round to the ministries to observe how their procurement officers are
conducting their procurement transactions.
Barrow
added that there is still a gap for capacity building, and the best way to
address that was to conduct in-service courses for procurement personnel.
The
training emanated from that, and would go a long way in helping and guiding
them in their procurement transactions.
Mr
Barrow said the participants were exposed to how to prepare an annual
procurement plan, which is an essential element in the public procurement
procedure.
The
topics discussed included how to complete or administer bidding documents, the
evaluation of bids and report writing.
Omar
B. Baldeh, director of Public Procurement at the Ministry of Finance, said the
in-service training course was a capacity-building programme for procurement
actors from the various institutions, including ministries and parastatal organisations.
The
aim is to build their capacity to deliver their daily services in a most
efficient and effective way at their workplace.
Mr
Baldeh said his office was tasked with building the capacity of procurement
personnel in the country, and from time to time looks at their performance in
the field.
He
assured the participants that there would be more training courses in the
future, and urged them to utilise the knowledge gained during the four-day
training session.