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The Certificate Program in Public Procurement (CPPP) was officially launched in Maldives by Mr. Ahmed Mujuthaba, Director General, National Tender Division, Ministry of Finance, Government of Maldives on Thursday the 22 May 2014. CPPP delivered as Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) was introduced by Mr Haider Raza, World Bank Country Focal Point for Procurement for Maldives and Srilanka during a procurement workshop held in Male, Maldives.

Introducing the program developed with the help of World Bank, Mr Raza highlighted country neutral universality of the program content and the tremendous response the portal has received since its regional launch in March 2014. The portal is accessed from over 100 countries and about 10000 procurement professionals and practitioners have visited the portal. Mr Raza expressed confidence that officials and other general public in Maldives will find the CPPP a useful learning experience. Ms. Sunethra Chandrika Samarakoon, Mr Khalid Bin Anjum and Ms Prabha Kumari Balasooriya from World Bank also participated in the workshop.

The official launch was attended by officials representing 9 government agencies including: Ministry of Environment and Energy, Ministry of Education, Maldives Pension Administration Office, Ministry of Finance, National Tender Division, Auditor General’s Office, Anticorruption Commission (ACC), Fenaka Corporation Ltd, Civil Service Commission (CSC), and Civil Service Training Institute (CSTI).

Mr. Mujuthaba an active member of the South Asia Regional Public Procurement Network had been an advocate for regional co-operation in procurement capacity development and hailed the initiative of launching a dedicated portal for public procurement and introduction of learning programs like CPPP with World bank support, a major fillip for the gaps existing in capacity in the countries in the region.

The immediate reaction from the participants was overwhelming and they all confirmed interest in attending to these training modules. In addition to the formal launching of the CPPP, Mr. Ahmed Mujuthaba has indicated that he will be inviting all the government entities to take full advantage of the training opportunity. The representative from the CSC also showed great interest and reiterated their interest in supporting the initiatives through the Civil Service Training Institute which is also identified as the potential partner institution planning to get seriously into e-learning programs. Maldives has shown interest in progressing to the Professional Diploma Program in Public Procurement, next in line for launch at www.procurementlearning.org

The CPPP MOOC which consists of 3 basic Modules, was officially launched by the President of Pakistan during the Second South Asia Regional Procurement Conference held in March 2014 at Islamabad, Pakistan. MOOC is Powered by South Asia Regional Procurement Services (SARPS) of The World Bank.

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10 leading academic and management training institutions in India had established a Charter for Public Procurement Studies (CPPS) for professionalizing Public Procurement in India during a national conference on capacity building in public procurement held on 16th and 17th January 2014 at New Delhi. South Asia Procurement Services of the World Bank, the Secretariate for such Charters in all South Asian countries, is supporting the capacity building initiatives in the region through partnerships with institutions for launching learning programs and helping to establish an online Network of procurement professionals in the region.

The public and autonomous institutions that has formed CPPS include: Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI), Hyderabad; All India Management Association (AIMA), New Delhi; Assam Institute of Management (AIM), Guwahati; CUTS Institute for Regulation and Competition (CIRC), New Delhi; HLL Academy (HLL), Thiruvananthapuram; Institute for Supply Management, India (ISM), Gurgaon; Indian Institute of Materials Management (IIMM), Bangalore; Indian Railways Institute of Logistics and Materials Management (IRILMM), New Delhi; National Institute of Finance Management (NIFM), Faridabad; and Symbiosis Centre for Distance Learning (SCDL), Pune. The meeting selected Mr Girish Bhatnagar, Executive Director, IRILMM, New Delhi and Prof Raj Agarwal, Director, CME, AIMA, New Delhi as the Convenors of CPPS.

With the technical and financial support of the World Bank, there will be two learning programs offered initially- a Certificate Program in Public Procurement (CPPP), a free on line MOOC program and a paid Professional Diploma in Public Procurement (PDPP) to be launched in July 2014 by the CPPS partner institutions. CPPP is scheduled to be launched on the 25 March 2014 at Islamabad, Pakistan, by His Excellency Mamnoon Hussain, President of Islamic Republic of Pakistan during the 2 South Asia Regional Procurement Conference.

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Organized by South Asia Regional Procurement Services (SARPS), and facilitated by Regional Procurement office of Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) and Brazil and Mexico country offices of World Bank, heads of Procurement of Afghanistan, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal and Srilanka had visited the central procurement authorities of Federal Govt. of Brazil in Brasilia; state Govt. authorities of Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte and federal Govt. authorities of Govt. of Mexico in Mexico City from 10 to 21 February, 2014.

The aim of this knowledge exchange program was to i) interact with government officials of public procurement divisions, policy makers and procurement staff at central and state level, so as to understand the details of the approach in the local procurement process; ii) understand their roles and contributions to the public procurement administration, their operating systems and procedures. iii) understand the organization of public procurement, including decentralization or local procurement framework for the country, including flow of funds at different levels within the system and iv) witness the procurement functions in various departments, especially for e-Procurement.

In Brazil, the first segment of the program, delegation had discussions with respective Secretaries of Ministry of Planning and Internal Affairs. They were introduced to public procurement reforms during the last 15 years in Brazil. Mission was impressed to note that a substantial portion (25%) of Brazil’s GDP comes from its Small and Medium Enterprises sector which is also creating 67% jobs in the market. The delegates experienced the long journey of the Government of Brazil in developing and stabilizing the systems that is today. They appreciated the need for an integrated approach to use of ICT for procurement planning, implementation and post contract management.

The significant learning for the South Asian team from the Brazilian experience of developing COMPRASNET was that for efficiency gains in use of ICT for Government procurement, various cogs in the wheel like Cataloguing of Items; development of a Supplier Database, Consolidation of demand for achieving value for money through economies of scale; market research and consultative process that need to be followed for developing product specifications and price reference points and the need for capacity building at both procurement entity level and bidding community shall be addressed as part of a comprehensive e-GP strategy.

Delegation also visited the state of Minas Gerais and had extensive discussiosn with authorities on use of technology, framework agreements, electronic reverse auction, development of Item and Supplier catalogues, Market lead price discovery and referencing followed, etc.

Second phase of the knowledge program was the visit to the State of Mexico. Participants witnessed the working of e-procurement tool COMPRANET which extensively uses reverse auction, accounts with on line registries for the buyers and purchasers, publicizes procurement plans etc. The Tool also provides information classified by various criteria (type of procurement, distribution by beneficiaries, suppliers, contractors, maximum, minimum, average prices, etc. Some of the other notable initiatives undertaken by the Government included Social Witness program for public procurement wherein a pool of citizen are drawn in for concurrently working with procurement entities to ensure adherence to eth stated policies and transparency in the process.

South Asia delegation found the diagnostic and spectral studies undertaken by Govt. of Mexico that lead to the decongestion of regulations in public procurement as the first requisite step for any serious reforms in the sector. The team also found the Social Witness Program a model to emulate in their countries

Delegates on the other hand had accumulated lot of knowledge and insights into the public procurement environment of Brazil and Mexico, few excerpts from some of them:

Anup Upadhyay, Nepal “Nepal has initiated many reforms actions since the World Bank CPAR and we have now reached e-submission stage in e-GP. This visit has been excellent and informative as it shows the need for developing a comprehensive strategy for rolling out complete e-GP. I am learning many new modes and methods of procurement that benefits the exchequer. I am very positive about introducing e- reverse auctions and framework agreements in Nepal”

Nazrat Bashir, Pakistan“The visit has been an excellent opportunity for me as it opened my eyes to a new paradigm in public procurement management for moving from compliance to performance. We have got exposed to the simulated real life actions on electronic reverse auctions. I will be keenly looking forward to the sustainability of such initiatives in implementing these new initiatives back home and implementing these…”

According to the Coordinator of the program, A K Kalesh Kumar of the World Bank “I found the visit a major success as it had demonstrated to South Asian country procurement heads, how Brazil and Mexico could overhaul a legally and procedurally over crowded public procurement system with sustained political commitment and bring in a paradigm shift of using procurement as a strategic tool for achieving developmental objectives of the Government rather than a compliance tool for rules and regulations. Effortless use of Information technology that takes care of all legal and regulatory requirements, use of newer methods and processes like electronic reverse auctions, framework agreements, consolidated demand purchase, social witnessing of bids, self sustaining institutional models that draw a minor percentile of contract values for promoting procurement capacity building like the SEBARAE in Brazil or BENSAFI in Mexico, etc. are replicable in the South Asian context. Delegates have returned with lots of ideas for bringing in qualitative changes in public procurement management in their respective countries. I look forward to the countries establishing contacts with Brazil and Mexico for continued South-South knowledge exchange.”

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On 25^th March 2014, Pakistan President His Excellency Mamnoon Hussain inaugurated the 2nd South Asia Procurement Conference in Islamabad and launched procurementlearning.org knowledge and networking portal and the Certificate Program in Public Procurement (CPPP) powered by South Asia Procurement Services of the World Bank.

President Mamnoon Hussain has also called for increased regional cooperation on public procurement. He suggested to the SAARC Secretariat to consider taking lead role in promoting mutual cooperation and opening SAARC Public Procurement Office in Islamabad.

The president, in his inaugural speech, also praised the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank for their support in holding the conference and said that both institutions had always played a visible role in the development of the region.

He felicitated the outgoing chair of the conference, Nepal, for its hard work and expressed the hope that the transfer of the position to Pakistan would help in building on the gains of the past and making the forum more vibrant and dynamic.

The conference was attended by Managing Director and officials of the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority, the auditor general, country directors of the WB and the ADB, heads of procuring agencies of the South Asian countries and representative of the SAARC secretary general.

Mr. Felipe Goya Goddard, Regional Procurement Manager of the World Bank introduced the audience to the concept, aims and objectives of the learning portal launched by World Bank in association with the Charter of Public Procurement Studies (CPPS). He hoped that the learning opportunities extended to all procurement professionals in the region free of cost will be utilized to its best potential and help develop a strong cadre of procurement professioanls in all countries in South Asia

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With the support from the World Bank, public procurement observatories are established by premiermanagement institutions e.g. Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Lucknow in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh; Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Raipur in Chhattisgarh; and Assam Institute of Management (AIM) Guwahati in the state of Assam; with the principal objectives of observing procurement process and advocating better practices for process improvement.

The Procurement Observatories aims at accomplishing the following objectives:

1. Collection and analysis of procurement (including contract implementation) related data in the states, leading to development of procurement performance indicators which could be useful for benchmarking.
2. Monitoring and documenting the procurement policies, rules etc. in the state and if possible, the actual implementation of the same.
3. Share the best practices (from other states in India and abroad) in procurement cycle management with the state Government through workshop, seminars and other means.

The observatories have developed the Key Procurement Performance Indicators; and are in the process of collecting, analyzing and disseminating procurement data, policies, rules etc. Visualization of key performance indicators is displayed in the websites; for example in the Uttar Pradesh website the adjacent graph captures time taken for various activities in electronic procurement in the state in 2011.

Observatories are also serving as vehicles for sharing best practices and capacity building in the states. Seminars and workshops have been conducted by Observatories in Uttar Pradesh and Assam on procurement processes targeting Government staff, media, general public etc.

According to Shanker Lal, Coordinator for this effort from World Bank India: “Even though the concept of procurement observatory is new for India and South Asia, this has been proven in other countries (for example Nigeria). Going by initial response of the respective state governments, we anticipate better acceptability of observatories in future, which may play key role in shaping public procurement policies of these states”.

Contact
Public Procurement Observatory for the State of Uttar Pradesh
Indian Institute of Management Prabandh Nagar,
Off Sitapur Road, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh,
India
Phone: +915222736631 | 05222736667
Mail id: amit@iiml.ac.in | Samir@iiml.ac.in
Website: www.procurementobservatoryup.com

Public Procurement Observatory for the State of Chhattisgarh
Indian Institute of Management Raipur GEC Campus,
Sejbahar, Old Dharmatari Road Raipur (C.G)
Phone: 492 015 +917712772119
Mail id: pocg@iimraipur.ac.in
Website: www.pocg.in

Public Procurement Observatory for the State of Assam Procurement
Observatory Cell- Assam Institute of Management (Govt. of Assam Society)
7th Floor , East Point Tower Bamunimaidum Guwahati
Phone: 21 +91361-2654815 | 3 , +919864026549 , +918721075872
Fax : 0361-2654813
Mail id: procobvassam@gmail.com
www.procurementobservatoryassam.in

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