Liberia: PFMRISP Certificates Procurement Practitioners

The Public Financial Management Reform for Institutional Strengthening Project (PFMRISP), has certificated 121 procurement practitioners from 13 implementing agencies of the public financial management reform projects. The training was conducted between September and November 2021.

The courses which were prepared based on the World Bank Procurement Regulations for Investment Project Financing (IPF) July 2016, revised November 2017, July 2018, and November 2020, were delivered in two sessions. The first session comprised 59 participants and focused on the Procurement of Goods in National Competitive Bidding and Request for Quotation while the second session was on Consultancy Services Selection Methods of Consultants Qualification Selection (CQS), Individual Consultants (IC), and Direct Selection (DS) was attended by 62 participants.

Speaking at the closing program on December 3, 2021, the representative from the World Bank Office in Monrovia Mr. MacDonald Nyazvigo, Financial Management Specialist and Task Team Leader for the PFMRIS Project said “I strongly believe that this is welcoming. I can remember when we started this training, we said that we need to develop and focus on the project, we need to ensure that the process is good and moving. You the participants, we are moving together and this is an opportunity for you and me to witness the commitment we have strived for today”.

For his part, Mr. Vee-Musa Fofana, Acting Project Manager, Project Management Unit who represented the Minister of Finance and Development Planning, expressed the need for more capacity building. According to Mr. Fofana, public financial management speaks about the wise use of money, and the training met its target. He said many people are requesting training, but the cost associated with that was very high for the government and partners to undertake, so need-based capacity-building efforts such as these will be encouraged and supported. He also thanked the African Development Bank, the Swedish Government, and European Union for their support towards building capacity public institutions, including the MFDP.

This capacity-building initiative was financed by the PFMRISP which is funded by the World Bank, European Union, and Swedish Government and benefited implementing agencies from both the African Development Bank’s Integrated Public Financial Management Reform Project phase II (IPFMRP II) and World Bank-financed PFMRISP. Beneficiary entities included the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, Liberia Revenue Authority, Public Procurement and Concession Commission, General Auditing Commission, Internal Audit Agency, Liberia Institute of Public Administration, University of Liberia, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health, Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission, Financial Intelligence Unit, Governance Commission and Project Management Unit (PMU). The procurement training was delivered based on the recommendations of the Procurement Capacity Building Strategy designed to mitigate the institutional and individual gaps, including challenges identified by the capacity assessment conducted by the Project Management Unit at all of the implementing agencies.

The objectives included the building of procurement management capacity at all implementing agencies, providing a platform for clarifications on technical issues, as well as discussing practical problems, findings, and weaknesses experienced during the implementation of the 2019 and the 2020 procurement plans.

It also sought to improve the quality and accuracy of the procurement process by speeding up preparation of bidding documents and the timely completion of evaluation of bid offers and proposals.

Certificate of participation was presented to all 121 participants on December 3, 2021 at The Boulevard Palace Hotel.

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