27 Mar 2013

Botswana Public Service College (BPSC) and Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Board (PPADB) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the exchange of training programmes for their professional staff.

PPADB divisional manager, Mr Ken Ketshajwang explained that through the MoU, a framework will be created within which the two organisations will exchange training programmes for their professional staff, personnel and the public service employees to enhance knowledge of public, procurement and asset disposal.

The timing for the MoU he said, was opportune as public procurement continues to account for a significant portion of government coffers giving rise for the need to professionalise the procurement cadre.

PPADB executive chairperson, Ms Bridget John stated that BPSC and PPADB have an obligation to up-skill public service employees in procurement and asset disposal.

She said their partnership with BPSC contributes to professionalising of procurement in the public service.

She noted that the success of the cooperation will ensure understanding of principles of procurement among others, compliance with the Act and regulations, and most importantly improved service delivery.

Ms John observed that as they work towards devolving more responsibility to procuring entities and increasing their regulatory role, the biggest outcry has been lack of procurement skill and capacity within the public service.

“This MoU is therefore a step in the right direction as it seeks to address this very concern,” she said.

She said that over the past few years, PPADB has been running a number of capacity building workshops for Procuring Entities (PE’s) to enable them to conduct their procurement in accordance with the requirements of the PPAD Act and Regulations.

Ms John highlighted that whilst planning the workshops have proven useful, their planning had been a challenge as PPADB had to wait for PE’s to request for such training.

" Cooperation with BPSC therefore brings about certainty as courses are scheduled upfront and more public officers are expected to attend such training with the resultant benefit of having more competent officers conducting procurement," she said.

The usual demand driven workshops, she said will continue to be held as some PEs may want to be trained by PPADB outside the BPSC schedule.

The executive director of BPSC, Dr Theophilus Mooko said the signing of the MoU was part of a broader strategic move geared towards enabling the BPSC to deliver on its mandate of providing capacity building for the public service.

The college, he said has been mandated to provide senior executives with relevant skills and competencies as well as enhance the public service capability.

He said public procurement and asset disposal were critical to effective service delivery, noting that there was need for public officers to be offered up-to date training in these areas so as to competently and effectively handle PPAD matters.

Dr Mooko stated that training provided will be tailor-made for different levels, newly employed public officers, supervisory cadre and the executive leadership. ENDS