Tender Board hosts regional training sessions to improve efficiency of procurement process

Apr 24, 2019 News

NPTAB Head, Berkley Wickham

The National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) recently hosted a series of training sessions in various regions so as to improve the efficiency of the procurement process. This was noted by NPTAB Head, Berkley Wickham.
During an interview with Kaieteur News, Wickham said, “We have been made several efforts to boost the efficiency of the procurement process, given the vital importance of adopting best procurement practices in the implementation of the Public Sector Investment Program (PSIP). Among the elements is standardization as we move towards eventual e-procurement.”
The official continued, “With a view to ensuring the smooth and timely implementation of these measures, during 2018, staff of the NPTAB Secretariat made visits to the various ministries, agencies and corporations to meet with the Permanent Secretaries, Heads of Agencies and CEO’s, officers with responsibility for procurement and other relevant staff.”
The NPTAB Head added, “These visits focused all or part on the general information of the public procurement process and methods of procurement, the use of standardized forms for the submission of procurement requests, the use of standardized form for the submission for annual procurement plans, and the identification of training needs or conduct training.”
For the most part, the NPTAB Head said that these visits were well received and generated much discussion. He said that officers of the ministries, in particular heads of departments and programme heads who participated in the sessions, improved their understanding of the objective of regulating the procurement of goods, services, and of construction of the various methods of procurement and attendant procedures.
Wickham said, too, that training was incorporated into some of the visits. He said, “Some other ministries and agencies visited requested follow-up training sessions to reinforce the information disseminated during the outreach visits. A total of eight training sessions were held. Specific training for evaluators was held in Regions Five, Six, Seven, and Eight. A total of 70 evaluators were also trained.”
In addition, the Tender Board head said that in November 2018, NPTAB, in collaboration with the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), held a two-day training session for evaluators.
Thirty-nine evaluators from a number of key procuring entities received the training.

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