An interesting event went unnoticed this past week. It was Belize Social Investment Fund (BSIF)Sensitization Workshop held at the Best Western Belize Biltmore Plaza last Thursday. It was organized with the objective of sensitizing suppliers, contractors and service providers of available procurement opportunities under its Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and World Bank funded projects in Belize which covered water and sanitation, health and education among other areas.The presenters’ subliminal messages were clear–contracting opportunities abound in Belize or in the local parlance – opportunities deh ya!
The efforts of this executing agency in hosting this workshop is commendable however, I suspect that this valiant effort is not enough. Similar presentations from other executing agencies and international financing institutions (IFIs) are required to give hope to Belizean contractors, suppliers and service providers who are thirsty for opportunities. Should you run into these people at the local supermarket you can see the despair yet hopeful look on their faces when they tell you that it is only a certain group of people that are getting business or a bite of the pie.
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) must surely be commended for hosting Belize’s first procurement fair in collaboration with the CDB which highlighted opportunities in excess of US$232 million and saw participation from a wide cross section of the local business community as well as participation from businesses overseas. But what is the root cause of the perception that only a privileged few benefits from business opportunities in Belize? Are they endowed with special tendering powers? Are the majority of eligible contractors not lucky enough? Surely, the government cannot be blamed for all the ills of society.
I would like to examine this perception from a procurement perspective and not only challenge contractors, suppliers and service providers to a heavy dose of reflection/introspection in their tendering/bidding practices, but to encourage them to increase their scope in identifying business opportunities.
In the first instance, there is a need to ensure that one is familiar with the intricate requirements of a tendering process. In order for tenders to be deemed responsive or even considered beyond initial scrutiny, quotations tendered must meet the minimum requirements, tender submission forms if applicable are required to be correctly prepared and signed, all CVs ofkey experts’ or team members, the list of equipment required to properly execute the job and the years of experience required executing similar assignments must be clearlyoutlined and included. However, that is not the end of it. Presentation is key and sections of a tender which are neatly typed and arranged section by section, is more pleasing to an evaluator’s eyes and creates a good first impression. It is imperative that the tender documents be thoroughly checked to ensure accuracy and completeness before they are promptly submitted before the deadline. Late bids/tenders are never tolerated!
With regards to identifying and understanding opportunities, it is instructive and advantageous to review project documents particularly those relating to loans signed by the government with IFIs. Once the name of the project is known, one can easily google the project name by country to locate these documents which are often times made public and provide solid information on the project at hand. It is a requirement for some IFIs that a procurement plan be published or included with these documents and, it is within this plan that contractors, suppliers and service providers can find procurement opportunities listed, including cost estimates of each opportunity. This information is extremely useful for being a baseline and can assist in arriving at a suitable tender price when the opportunity is advertised. Additionally, one can peruse the awarded contracts section within the IFI website to get an estimate of the costing of similar projects/assignments.
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The Ministry of Public Works in collaboration with The Department of Information Technology is in the process of updating its contractor database, and also its tendering and payment certificate processes.
Stemming from the Ministry’s preparation for the New Providence School Repair Programme, Director of Public Works, Melanie Roach, said it was decided that this would be the opportune time to kill two birds with one stone.
“The technical staff at the Ministry determined that a seminar would be the most effective way of imparting the information contractors will require to successfully tender for projects and once awarded a contract to navigate smoothly through the management of the construction process and provide the information required to ensure timely payments,” she said.
“All of this is in an effort to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the Ministry of Public Works and the ease of doing business with the Government of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas,” she added.
Ms. Roach, encourages all contractors interested in participating in the procurement process for government capital works projects to attend the seminar and this includes for works of all types and valued from $1 to multi-millions of dollars.
The topics for the seminar include: contract pricing and payment procedures, pre-qualification documents and assessment criteria, e-procurement, project management and site safety, and the construction contractor’s act.
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As of 25 May 2018, the new General Date Protection Regulations (GDPR) is finally in force in European Union (EU’), having in formally adopted over two years prior. In the lead-up to this new regime, people and businesses all over the world have been trying to put their house in order, to ensure they complied with the provisions.
Similar to its predecessor, the 1995 Data Protection Directive, the GDPR is different. In a nutshell, the GDPR not only applies to organisations located within the EU, but also applies to organisations located outside of the EU – if they offer goods or services to, or monitor the behaviour of, individuals who reside within the EU. The long reach of the GDPR – its inter-territorial reach – has caused numerous organisations re-examine their systems and approach to the handling of personal data, in order to avoid the stiff fines the EU is prepared to levy when breaches are determined.
Within the Caribbean procurement space, the spectre of the GDPR may not be as acute in the first instance. With the most projects being in the Caribbean region, for the region, they tend to fall beyond the scope of the GDPR. However, work Caribbean Consultants, Contractors and Vendors (of goods and services) might be executed for or on behalf of European firms, or targeting European residents, the GDPR becomes an important consideration.
To that end, there is a wealth of resources online, such as the EU GDPR Information Portal, which details the Regulations, along with key issues that should be given particular attention. We also recommend that you listen to the ICT Pulse Podcast episode, in which the nuts and bolts of the GDPR are discussed with Caribbean attorney-at-law, Bartlett Morgan.
In terms of practical things you can do, and as a starting point, we suggest the following tip to help you (and your team) stay on the right side of the GDPR, as well many of the data protection regimes that are being implemented across the Caribbean region:
1. Fully understand why you are collecting and holding the data that is in your (and/or your organisation’s) possession. Under the GDPR, the data owners are entitled to know why you are holding their data and how it is being used.
2. Map how data, and personal data flows through your organization, along with the systems and resources that are used. Assess the risk: whether all of the steps, systems, actors, etc.., are needed; the extent to which the data could be compromised; and whether there might be better/more efficient and effective ways to derive the purpose for which the data is being kept.
3. Stop collecting data you don’t have a legitimate need for, and recognized that data such as IP addresses and other online identifiers as personal data, which now fall under the scope of the GDPR.
4. Review how long you retain individuals; data for, and how it is stored and secured. You should not retain individuals’ personal data any longer that you need to, and appropriate arrangements should be made to ensure that the data is properly and safely stored.
5. Review and update your business’ (and its website’s) privacy notices to provide the additional information required by the GDPR.
6. Amend all of your data contracts – especially if you are in the business collecting data, processing data, market research, or even conducting surveys – to ensure they are GDPR-compliant.
7. Pay attention to the third-party entities you might be using to process, or otherwise handle data on your behalf. Ensure that their data privacy and terms of use policies are also aligned with the GDPR, to reduce the chance of difficulties in the future.
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Reporting to the Manager IT Services, the successful candidate will be responsible for:
– Setting and continually managing project expectations with team members and other stakeholders; planning and scheduling project timelines and milestones using appropriate tools and track project milestones and deliverables;
– Defining project scope, goals and deliverables that support business goals in collaboration with senior management and stakeholders; this will include the development of business cases;
– Effectively communicating project expectations to team members and stakeholders in a timely and clear fashion; liaising with project stakeholders on an ongoing basis;
– Conducting project post mortems and create a recommendations report in order to identify successful and unsuccessful project elements.
– Managing the development and deployment of new applications, systems software, and/or enhancements to existing applications throughout the enterprise.
– Defining project success criteria and disseminate them to involved parties throughout project life cycle and determine the frequency and content of status reports from the project team, analyze results, and troubleshoot problem areas.
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OPPOSITION spokesman on finance Mark Golding has welcomed the Bill to amend the Public Procurement Act, which, he said, will serve to enhance the associated processes involved in the system.
“We support the thrust of this legislation and any attempts to improve it, and we also hope that as it is rolled out, the training to support it will be such that we will see far more efficient execution of the procurement processes in the public sector than have been achieved in the past,” he said.
Golding was making his contribution to the debate on the Bill in the House of Representatives on Wednesday.
The legislation seeks to regulate the procurement of goods, works and services by agencies.
Golding noted that the principal law, the Public Procurement Act, was passed in 2015 to introduce a modern procurement system with clear rules, and the necessary institutional base to ensure fairness, transparency and efficiency.
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