As part of its efforts to extend its outreach to other regions, the Public Pro-curement Commission (PPC) conducted a training session at the Watooka Guest House in Linden, Region Ten.
According to a PPC release yesterday, The session saw the participation of 26 persons, including members of the Regional Executive Office, Regional Tender Board, evaluators, engineers, Town Council members, procurement staff, and personnel from the health, public works, education, agriculture, and the admin and finance department within the Region.
The objective of this training session was to enrich participants with information to improve the public procurement system within their respective entity.
The training was led by a team comprising the PPC’s Chief Executive Officer, an attorney-at-law, Procurement Specialist, and Training Officer, and covered a diverse range of topics relevant to the commission’s operations and the procurement process. These included, the PPC’s role and responsibilities (mission, vision, core values and function); the legislative framework, the administrative review and debarment process; the public procurement pro-cess; the procurement plan preparation; threshold and tender openings; and the evaluation process.
The release explained that the training was held as part of the commission’s ongoing public awareness campaign to apprise stakeholders of the rules and procedures governing the public procurement system so that they may better navigate the procurement process and comply with all of its rules and procedures.
Further, there have been training sessions so far for 2024 in regions Two, Three, Four, Five, and Six, the PPC noted the highly favourable response from Region 10, which benefitted from its first procurement training session. This positive feedback is indicative of the value and impact of these sessions, and underscores the PPC’s commitment to enhancing procurement practices across all regions, the release said.
The release disclosed that the commission will be delivering similar procurement training in regions One, Seven, Eight, and Nine, in the coming weeks and covering all ten administrative regions.
The commission also expressed its eagerness to continue this journey and to ensure “comprehensive and effective” procurement education throughout the regions.
“By expanding our training efforts, the commission aims to foster a transparent, efficient, and accountable procurement system that benefits all stakeholders and supports sustainable development across Guyana.”
It too pointed out that Section 19(1) of the Pro-curement Act, Cap. 73:05, provides for the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB), to create a Regional Tender Board within each administrative region which is subject to the provisions of the Act. As such, it is imperative that the Regional Tender Boards are acquainted with and have a working knowledge of the procurement processes as mandated by the Act.
Anyone seeking more information or who may require public procurement training can contact the Commission on telephone numbers (592) 226-3729, (592) 231-7306, and (592) 226-2364 or via email at operations@ppc.org.gy
The PPC has come in for severe criticism over its handling of several complaints before it about contract awards. Critics have also said that these training sessions cannot be considered a priority.
