Public Procurement Officers receive capacity enhancement training
Jamaica
Procurement practitioners within the Government Service recently participated in a capacity-building workshop geared at improving competencies, efficiency, and productivity in the procurement of goods, services, and resources on behalf of the Government of Saint Lucia.
Director of Procurement in the Department of Finance, Anthony Jean, said the training allowed participants to understand and utilize the provisions within the new procurement legislation to perform better procurements to benefit their agencies.
“It’s not enough that officers know what’s in the law but they appreciate the underlined ‘Why’ allows them to use that as a tool to effectively accomplish what the agencies require. It’s not purchasing or performing a procurement in compliance with the law, but you want to be able to do it in a manner that really gets you what you want for your agency.”
Senior Consultant with Charles Kendall Partnership, Rob Thompson was one of the facilitators of the workshop.
“I’ve been in procurement for 30 plus years working with both the private sector and the public sector but specializing in terms of public procurement and helping developing nations as well as European countries to interpret the regulations in a practical way which will deliver good value for money procurement but still ensure compliance rather than having people focus purely and simply on compliance without thinking about is it good value in the end when they make their procurements.”
He stressed the procurement officer’s important role as procurement touches more of the government’s expenditure than any other function.
“If we get the procurement right, buying hospitals, buying roads, even buying office equipment or furniture. Whatever you think the government needs, it has to be bought. And, that is why procurement is fundamentally one of the most important functions within government to deliver a good return for the investment people make in the taxes they pay.”
The International Tax Consultant implored participants to strive for value for money in procurement.
“The usual approach for people to take, because it’s the safe approach, is to buy the cheapest. So, the lowest price. What I am saying to them is its equally good value to buy one with a better life cost than the initial purchase price. So look at things over their life, and sometimes it’s worth paying more to start off with because it has a lower cost.”
The takeaway for participants, he said, is that performing good procurement leads to good compliance with the standards and legislation. The week-long workshop at the Finance Administrative Building in Pointe Seraphine also involved participants from the audit department who review public procurement.
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