|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Joint workshop on Competition Law in Public Procurement by World Bank and CCI
Around 70 delegates including participants from UNICEF, World Bank, CCI, UP Dialogues and discussion on topics ranging from understanding competition in He also mentioned that the observatory had developed various key AIMA conducts face to face workshop for a diverse second batch of PDPP studentsThe Professional Diploma in Public Procurement is a blended format of online and offline learning is The group included participants from India, Philippines, Vietnam, as well as Afghanistan, Bhutan, Pakistan, Nepal, Ghana, Ethiopia etc. The group was led by Prof. Gurbandini Kaur, Program Director, At special sessions participants interacted with Ms. Binu Malhotra (Procurement Consultant), Mr. Rajeev Kumar Verma (Deputy CMM, e-Procurement, Northern Railways) and Mr. APS Nimbadia (DIG, ITBP). Various sessions on Public Procurement, Good Governance, Public Procurement Framework, Operations etc. were conducted. The participants actively engaged in creative problem solving exercises and case studies on the relevant topics. 
Conference on Public Procurement to be held in Dhaka from November 1st-3rd, 2015Posted by Ananya Dasgupta on Monday, October 26, 2015 8:40 pm
The Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU), under the Ministry of Planning, Bangladesh is all set to host the Third South Asia Regional Public Procurement Conference in Dhaka between 1st to 3rd November this year. The event will be inaugurated by Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal and will be concluded by the Finance Minister AMA Muhith. The World Bank (WB) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) are co-sponsors of this annual learning and networking event which will see the participation of more than 120 senior public procurement officials from eight South Asian countries. The main objective of the conference this year is to discuss topics like workforce and professionalism in public procurement, electronic government procurement (e-GP), reforms in procurement environment and methods for performance enhancement. Framework agreements, public-private partnership, open data, strategic procurement for improved performance and performance measurement are also on the agenda at the event. Furthermore, speakers from France, Netherlands, USA, Canada, South Korea, and the Philippines have been invited to speak about the latest developments and practices in the global public procurement landscape. The conference will conclude with the adoption of a Dhaka Declaration. The first such regional conference was held in Nepal in 2011. The second one was held in Islamabad, Pakistan in 2014. Procurementlearning.org, the World Bank’s global portal for online Procurement education, was launched at this conference. National Public Procurement Observatory launched
 Mr. M.S Sahoo of CCI addresses the gathering
Procurementlearning.org in WashingtonPosted by Ananya Dasgupta on Thursday, October 1, 2015 4:49 pm
Mr. Kumar shared the plans for launching a global e-directory of procurement professionals, 3P Net(Public Procurement Professionals Network) Supplymanagement.com examines the World Bank’s procurement guideline rehaul
Will Green looks at how the World Bank’s radical overhaul of its procurement processes will affect the organisation and its clients. How many organisations spend $44 billion each year in 178 countries, including the most war-torn nations, finance enormous infrastructure projects such as the Panama Canal expansion scheme and support social development in the poorest countries? Then ask, how would you go about developing a procurement strategy for such an organisation? This is the challenge the World Bank faced as it set about reforming a procurement system unchanged since the 1970s. Back then, it was decided the way to produce the certainty firms needed to bid for work in an uncertain world was a procurement system that would be the same wherever you were. The evaluation process was the same and the lowest bid always won. “With globalisation, speed of information exchange and general modernisation of procurement, we’ve had to change that,” says World Bank CPO Christopher Browne. Browne says 5,000 people were consulted during the three-year process to overhaul the bank’s procurement framework, which he describes as “a huge step forward”. The changes were approved by the Bank’s executive board in July. Central to the overhaul is that a procurement strategy will be developed for each project by the client country, with support from bank staff, taking into account factors including risks, potential bidders, value for money and sustainability. Browne says many in the developing world view the World Bank as the “gold standard” of purchasing and the changes will help promote modernisation of public procurement around the globe. Lillian Karuri-Magero, chief of staff for a leading bank and chairwoman of the CIPS Gauteng branch in South Africa, says the changes “have significant implications for public procurement, especially in developing countries.” “The World Bank’s recent announcement raises the bar for procurement integrity and accountability, as well as sustainable procurement practices globally,” she says. Karuri-Magero says it is “heartening” it supports the professionalisation of procurement by organisations such as CIPS. Funding squeeze However, the new framework has raised concerns about funding. In 2013 World Bank Group president Jim Yong Kim announced “no more business as usual”, along with a reduction in administration costs of at least $400 million over the following three years. Jeroen Kwakkenbos, policy and advocacy manager at the European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad), which represents NGOs working on poverty reduction and development, says: “At a time when the World Bank is going through downsizing to try to become more efficient, they seem to have created a framework that is more expensive and complex. Costs are going to go up in the short term with the hope they go down in the long term.” That reduction in costs is expected to come from the way projects are monitored by bank staff, with those deemed low risk needing less scrutiny. “In some ways we are making things more complicated because we are asking for a strategy to be developed up front,” says Browne. “Our argument would be we are putting more work in at the beginning which should mean the procurement works a lot more successfully afterwards.” This extra complication will require additional skills, both for the client countries drawing up procurement strategies and the bank staff supporting them. Daniel Dudis, senior policy director at Transparency International USA, says: “Recognising procurement is a critical component of the bank’s governance agenda, the framework commits the bank to building borrower procurement capacity. “Unfortunately, the bank has not committed to increase funding for capacity building, but instead wants shareholders to create a separate fund for this. This could be a stumbling block.” Kwakkenbos says: “Procurers have a tough enough job as it is and now they have to be sustainability experts and environmental experts; they are going to need such a huge skill-set. The amount of training that will need to be taken into account for bank staff is going to be Herculean.” The new framework says funding to support capacity-building work in client countries will not increase. Instead the bank will establish a “multi donor trust fund to which shareholders will be asked to contribute”, though this position will be reviewed if necessary. Browne says: “I am more than comfortable that we have the funding and support to get the programme off the ground. There is a regular reporting and checks and balances have been put in place to make sure things are delivering, and if it’s not then we’ll recalibrate as we go.” Transparency test Could the new flexibility open the door to more corruption? Browne says no, because more complex procurements will be subject to “continuous probity auditing”. “We will have people who will sit in on evaluations to make sure things are being done fairly,” he says. Alison Geary, a senior associate at law firm WilmerHale who specialises in advising firms on fraud in relation to World Bank contracts, agrees. “The scope for corruption is probably the same,” she says. However, she does feel the bank should be reviewing its sanctions programme in terms of its aggressiveness, activity levels and the amount of publicity it receives. However, Geary says a commitment by the bank to increase transparency in the ownership of bidding firms would be positive for companies acting in consortia. “I think that’s a really good thing because it protects you from corruption and other types of financial risk,” she says. And attracting more bidders is a key aim. “In certain places and certain types of projects we’re struggling to get really good companies,” says Browne. He believes the consideration of quality issues rather than just cost will change that. “We will get better participation in our projects, by allowing things other than cost to be taken into account, particularly on the big complex infrastructure projects we do, I think we’ll get better designs, and I think we’ll get better whole-life costs over the longer term,” he says. Info: Planning ahead At the heart of the World Bank’s new procurement framework is a Project Procurement Strategy for Development (PPSD), which is a document that will be drawn up by borrower countries. The PPSD will be a “critical document that justifies the right procurement method informed by the identified risks” and for low to moderate-risk projects it is expected to be “short, focused and quick to complete”, maybe shorter than two pages. For more complex schemes “it will be much more comprehensive”. For the first time quality and sustainability criteria can be used, though sustainability is an option for borrowers rather than a bank requirement. Alternative procurement arrangements can also be used if approved by the bank. While the greater transparency offered by the new framework has been welcomed, there have been calls for documents such as bids, contracts and audits to be published as part of efforts to tackle corruption. World Bank CPO Christopher Browne says it will take five years to phase in the changes, as projects procured under the old system run their course, and there will be regular progress reviews about funding and other issues. • See Procurement in World Bank Investment Financing, Phase II: The Procurement Framework PDPP gets its First credits
|
|
A joint workshop on ‘Competition Law and Public Procurement’ was organised by the World Bank supported U.P Procurement observatory at Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Lucknow on November 28th, 2015. The workshop was inaugurated by Mr. Ashok Chawla (Chairman, Competition Commission of India (CCI)).
Government and several PSUs attended the workshop. The deliberations in the workshop ranged from understanding competition in public procurement, its journey and concerns to World Bank’s initiatives for improving competition in public procurement. A detailed presentation was also made on the public procurement process visualisation tool developed by the observatory.
Public Procurement as well as the World Bank’s initiatives for improving competition in Public Procurement were done at the workshop. Sameer Srivastava, Professor at IIM Lucknow said that the Public procurement observatory was established in 2013 to look into Public Procurement and advocate better practices for enhancing Public Procurement in Uttar Pradesh. “The observatory also pursues qualitative and quantitative analysis of Public Procurement across various states and shares it with government officers and citizens through a portal, blogs, tweets, newsletters, workshops and training sessions. By observing procurement processes and advocating better procurement practices, it aims to encourage significant savings in Public Procurement”, he said.
performance indicators (KPIs) to understand and benchmark the public procurement across eight Indian states. It has also developed a process visualisation tool to help users better understand procurement process on various KPIs. He stated that the observatory is also working towards developing a collaborative network of public procurement experts from within India as well as across the globe and is exploring partnerships with leading institutions such as the University of Hull (UK) University of Cincinnati (USA) for open discussion and collaboration on competition in public procurement, open data sharing and information federalism, he added.
what makes it unique and affordable for learners across. All India Management Association (AIMA) organized a face to face workshop for the second batch of Professional Diploma in Public Procurement (PDPP) candidates on 21st and 22nd November 2015. The program was well attended by Directors, Procurement Specialists, Chief Engineers, Senior Practitioners, Executive Assistants etc. from various leading Private bodies, PSUs and Navratnas. To name a few like BHEL, Asian development Bank, World Bank, IBM, Ceragon etc.
PDPP Program, AIMA and Mr. A. Kalesh Kumar (Capacity Building Coordinator- South Asia procurement, The World Bank).
The experience of Procurementlearning.org over the last one and a half years; its reach to over 20000 members from about 140 countries and possible future initiatives were discussed in a meeting attended by senior officers of the Governance Global Practice of the World Bank at its head quarters in Washington on 10 September 2015. The meeting, chaired by Mr. Mario Marcel, Senior Director and Head of the Governance Global Practice of World Bank was attended by senior governance, financial management, procurement and learning experts from different regional offices of the World Bank. Mr. Felipe Goya, Governance Practice Manager introduced the subject and Mr. A K Kalesh Kumar, Task Leader for Procurementlearning.org made a detailed presentation of the last 2 years journey and future plans. 
Ms. Ellen Nedde, Chief of e-learning, International Monitory Fund (IMF) and Ms. Sheila Jagannathan, Lead Learning Specialist, LLIOL, World Bank shared their respective experience in this field and observed that the process of development following very in depth engagement with stakeholders for need identification, consultative process followed for developing the content and the various types of interactivity introduced into the learning programs by Procurement Learning are commendable. The meeting also appreciated that in a very short span of time, attracting about 20000 members to enroll for various programs is the strength of Procurement Learning and efforts shall be made to keep this Community of Practice engaged in discussions and developments on public procurement. 
e-Directory which is a unique online recognition program for procurement professionals which would act as a link between the professionals and their public/private sector clients.The plan also includes developing Mobile application for the Community of Practice for instant sharing of information and interactiveness. The meeting appreciated the efforts made towards professionalization of the procurement function and advised the team to proceed to develop versions in all major languages of the world for wider reach among the global procurement fraternity
completed a year’s run of the PDPP course, all the successful graduates were felicitated at their 20th convocation ceremony, held at the India Habitat entre in New Delhi, India.
The 39 graduates of the World’s first Blended learning course in Procurement were glad to speak about their takeaways from the Program. The candidates are professionals from across the Public sector, Government enterprises, as well as the Public Sector and are placed at responsible positions in their respective fields and practices. They all spoke about significant applications of the skills they gathered while doing the course.
Amit Kumar, Senior Manager at Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP says that “PDPP has been a much focussed and well managed program during its entire tenure. The faculty has been well versed in its subjects and the books have been well defined.” Mr. Ajit Kumar Mishra, Addnl. General Manager at Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India says “finer points about the Procurement cycle and processes that are left unattended in our training at the Railways department have been addressed by this course. I feel that it will definitely help procurement professionals eliminate the common mistakes and sharpen their skills. It is a beautifully designed course addressing all the important issues with an equally efficient support team who were keen to impart the training and support practitioners.”
The quality and output of teaching materials as well as the amount of planning that goes into procurement have been dealt with very well. I would really like to support everyone who works in the Public Procurement arena. The course components focussing on transparency, business ethics, and equality; qualities that have been enshrined in the Article 14 of the Constitution of India were explained and stressed upon appropriately in this course.”
