24 Jul 2019

Good public procurement practices are a major determinant for the effectiveness of public expenditure and effective policies. They also enable better use of government budgets. 

This was said by PPADB executive chairperson, Mr Elijah Motshedi during the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Board (PPADB) workshop for government officials and other procurement professionals in Gaborone, recently.

 Mr Motshedi said in 2013, the United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) launched the Global Procurement Initiative (GPI) primarily to build capacity of the developing and middle income countries to establish sound procurement practices and policies that facilitated fair, transparent and equitable participation in international tenders.

Mr Motshedi said the workshop sponsored by USTDA, which discharged its mandate through the provision of funding and support to US businesses to undertake activities and projects that stimulated infrastructural development and economic growth in the US and partner countries.

He emphasised that the US government through USTDA provided a grant to fund two senior procurement advisers to assist the then Ministry of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources in developing tenders for water and energy procurement that better incorporated value for money considerations.

He indicated that the emerging economies could leverage on the initiative and improve the outcome of public procurement, deliver the best value for money, expand US trade and investment and stimulate sustainable economic growth.

Mr Motshedi said the partnership between PPADB and USTDA sought to introduce Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) as part of training offered by the PPABD to its stakeholders with subsequent application of the concept during tender development and evaluation to promote value for money procurement.

He appreciated that Botswana was the first beneficiary of the GPI and through the operationalisation of the GPI, there had been a number of activities undertaken.

Participants were trained on various aspects of public procurement including LCCA, framework contracts for ICT and construction as well as debarment and contract management practices. 

The goal was to determine what steps PPADB and government may wish to adopt for a procurement-specific code of conduct. 

USTDA director, Ms Andrea Lupo said PPADB had been a wonderful partner and through the partnership, they were going to expand their memorandum of understanding.

Ms Lupo guaranteed participants that their online training programme would be available free of charge to their partners. ENDS