As perhaps the most longstanding regional organisation, with nearly 20 associated institutions through which it touches the life every Caribbean citizen, the projects undertaken by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) can have far-reaching impact. However, as a regional organisation, CARICOM can seem a bit removed from the business community. As a result, its procurement procedures and processes tend not to be well understood, which undoubtedly would affect the number and quality of the tender responses it receives. Additionally, the organisation will soon be rolling out a Community Procurement Regime within the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME), which has the potential to transform public procurement not only within CARICOM itself, but also in each of its Member States.
Purpose and Objectives
This webinar has been organised to increase awareness among Caribbean Consultants and Vendors (of goods and services) of the changes that are being made to CARICOM’s procurement procedures, and to provide insight into the priority projects (at the regional level) that should be open for tender in 2018. Accordingly, this webinar hopes to achieve the following:
- Apprise attendees of the soon-to-be-implemented Community Procurement Regime, its benefits, opportunities, implementation timeline, and how Consultants and Vendors would be affected
- Provide an overview of CARICOM’s current procurement procedures
- Share CARICOM’s procurement plan for 2018
- Get the Consultant and Vendor community more aware the procedural changes in procurement occurring at the CARICOM level, so that they may be better able to position themselves to adjust and better capitalise on the opportunities that are likely to emerge.
The Speakers
Philip McClauren – Deputy Programme Manager, CSME Unit
Originally from Saint Lucia, Philip has been a career public servant for almost three decades, focusing on areas such as Trade, Commerce and Consumer Affairs. Currently, is the Deputy Programme Manager of the CSME Unit in Barbados, and he will be walking us through CARICOM’s new procurement’s framework, the Community Procurement Regime.
Chester James – Programme Manager, Procurement, CARICOM Secretariat
Chester James started his career in St Vincent and the Grenadines. Currently is the Programme Manager, Procurement, of the CARICOM Secretariat located in Guyana. At the webinar, Chester will be sharing with us CARICOM’s procurement plan for 2018, which he would have been instrumental in preparing.
Michele Marius – Host and Moderator, Project Calls
Michele Marius is an experienced Consultant, Manager, Regulator and Engineer who has worked in the private and public sectors, and in developed and developing countries in the Caribbean, the South Pacific, and Southeast Asia. She is the Founder of Project Calls, and has organized this webinar. She will also moderate the proceedings.
Webinar Details
WHEN: Tuesday, 20 March 2018
TIME: 10:30 a.m. (Barbados time, GMT -5)
REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN: https://projectcalls.clickmeeting.com/caricom-procurement-framework-2018-plan/register?_ga=2.9889456.488434950.1520865779-994586815.1516292113
NOTE: Places are limited, so do log in 5—10 minutes before the session begins to ensure a place!
Images: P McClauren; C James; M Marius
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–Int’l Oil and Gas Consultant
In order to ensure that a significant portion of local services and products are utilized by foreign companies in the oil sector, procurement rules/guidelines and strategies must be employed at all times.
This advice is what Chatham House has passed on to many countries seeking its help in the oil and gas sector. Chatham House is a non-profit, non-governmental organization based in London whose mission is to analyze and promote the understanding of major international issues and current affairs. Government has claimed that it is consulting with and using the advice of the organization.
The organization has strong rules and principles when it comes to local content.
Chatham House notes that in a company’s operations, local content strategies sometimes reside in separate units or in the CSR department. This means local content is often a later consideration in the planning process.
The organization says that a requisite local content ramp up of supplier skills and capacity may be developed too late in the design and engineering process to provide timely local goods and services to the project.
It notes that operators have considered various organizational models for handling local content. Industry discussions recognize the risk that if local content sits with the procurement unit, opportunities for optimizing local content are missed. To avoid this, Chatham House says that different models are being considered to front-load strategic thinking in regard to local content and to better assess the trade-offs that companies must consider between different objectives, such as managing long-term risks versus minimizing costs.
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Image: freestocks.org (Pexels)
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The Central Purchasing Department’s name has been changed to the Government Procurement Department, to reflect its new mandate.
According to Acting Chief Procurement Officer, Janice Worrell, the Department would no longer be focusing on purchasing supplies on behalf of other Ministries and departments.
“The Government Procurement Department will focus on the negotiation of contracts with suppliers and selecting those suppliers from among the list of Approved Suppliers that best meet the needs of the Public Service. Those successful suppliers will be the ones Ministries and departments will purchase from for the given period,” Worrell explained.
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Image: The Blue Diamond Gallery
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The Central Procurement Office has finally launched its new website after a year of working on it. The site provides a central portal for stakeholders inside and outside government who are involved in the supply and provision or acquisition of public services, and offers a platform where the public as well as public servants can learn all about government contracts, officials said. The Central Procurement Office is the new centralised department within the finance ministry which sets the guidance, standards, tools and templates to regulate public procurement.
CPO Director Craig Milley said that much thought had gone into creating a website that could comprehensively accommodate searches for information by internal and external stakeholders. All the information that a procurement officer within government might require and how businesses can bid for tenders is available on the site.
“We wanted to ensure that the site is attractive, very easy to navigate and supremely user-friendly, in short, that it offers a world-class design,” Milley said about the site which has taken some twelve months to complete. Officials said that this was partly due to the director and Deputy Director Elizabeth Gerrie aiming for a design that readily provided information with minimal search attempts and they spent a good bit of time fine-tuning the website design and contents.
“We wanted to under-promise and over-deliver, and accordingly used the time to get the website, its contents and design up to exacting specs,” the director explained.
However, officials said the website remains a work in progress, at least for a few weeks, to ensure that fine-tuning, if required, continues.
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Preparations have started for what will be Saba’s largest infrastructural project ever: the expansion of the harbour at Fort Bay that includes the construction of a second, larger pier.
A so-called sub-soil study, which entails the testing of the sea floor in the direct vicinity of the new pier, is in the planning phase, according to Saba Commissioner Bruce Zagers. This study is important for the breakwater that needs to be constructed to protect the actual pier against the swells. A specialised company needs to carry out this study due to its complexity and specifics. Government has started to look for a company that can carry out the job.
After the sub-soil study, the final design will be made. Witteveen+Bos will be designing the new multi-million pier and the adjacent breakwater. The Dutch engineering company did the design of the current big pier and has the necessary experience. The big pier has withstood all hurricanes, including Irma and Maria.
While in the Netherlands last week and the week before for a series of meetings, the Saba delegation, headed by Commissioner Zagers, met with Witteveen+Bos and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management I&W. “We want to get everyone on the same page and go for the best possible design,” Zagers told The Daily Herald.
The new pier will be bigger than the current “big” pier and will replace the actual small pier which has been damaged by the hurricanes and needs urgent replacing. Temporary repairs were made to the small pier following Hurricanes Irma and Maria.
The exact amount of the project is not known at this time because it is still in the planning phase, but for sure it will be the largest in Saba’s history, said Zagers. The project will be financed through the Dutch Government.
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Image: Wikipedia
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