republic of sierra leone - african development … of sierra leone . consultation workshops...

Consultations Workshops

Regarding

The Comprehensive Review of the AfDB’s Procurement Policy

Sierra Leone

02 April 2014

REPUBLIC OF SIERRA LEONE

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Consultation Workshops –Freetown Sierra Leone – 2nd April 2014 Page 1 of 8

Consultation Workshop

Concerning the comprehensive Review of the African Development Bank’s Procurement Policy

Attendance Sheet Date: 02 April 2014 Location: Freetown, Sierra Leone

Title First Surname Designation Organization

Mr. Junisa. P Bangali Company Secretary and Legal Adviser

Sierra Leone Water Company (SALWACO)

Mr. Joseph. L Ngegba Senior Procurement Officer Ministry of Finance and economic Development

Mr. Alfred Campbell Ag. Director for Administration & Fianace

Office of the Chief of Staff Office of the President

Ms.

Mahawa

Sandi Procurement Officer Project Administration Unit Ministry of Finance and Economic Development

Mr. Gorpal Sharma Deputy Country Representative UNICEF



Mr. Velea Viorel Procurement Specialist World Bank

Mr. Dauda . A Kamara Head of Procurement Department Bank of Sierra Leone

Mr. Hawanatu Conteh Journalist Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation

Mr. Abdul Rahman

Barrie Higher Executive Officer Ministry of Finance and Economic Development

Mr. Sylmaty Bayoh Finance Assistant Mano River Union

Mr. Mohamed Sehlu

Bah Principal Auditor Audit Services Sierra Leone

Mr. Koffi Kouman Deputy Secretary General Mano River Union

Mrs Linda R Williams Project Officer European Union

Mr. Moses Ngebeh Head of Procurement Department National Public procurement Authority



Mr. James Kargbo Procurement officer National Public procurement Authority

Ms Hawanatu Bockari Press Officer Ministry of Finance and Economic Development

Ms Nyaibor Ngombu Project officer Manu River Union

Mrs Valerie. V Cole Project Procurement Desk Officer Anti Corruption commission

Mr. Kelvin Robert Journalist Premier News

Mr. Alfred Coker Head of Monitoring Department National Public Procurement Authority

Mr. Brima Frank Bameh Senior Procurement Officer National Public Procurement Authority

Mr Vidal Paul Coker Deputy Auditor General Audit services Sierra Leone

Mr. Peter Sam-Kpakra Deputy Financial Secretary Ministry of Finance and Economic Development

Mr. David. J Allieu Advocacy and Communication Officer

Health for All Coalition



Ms. Nancy kamara Senior Financial Specialist PFMRU-Ministry of Finance and Economic Development

Dr. Mohamed Elhassein RX Technical Specialist UNFPA


Consultation Workshop

Concerning the comprehensive Review of the African Development Bank’s

Procurement Policy

____________________________________________________________________________

Date: 02 April 2014

Location: Freetown, Sierra Leone

____________________________________________________________________________

Conclusions

The Consultation workshop was held in Sierra Leone on the 2nd April, 2014. The

participants included Government Representatives, Development Partners, UN Agencies,

Project Staff, and Civil Society Organizations. The summarized conclusion of the feedback

from participant on the guiding questions is presented below and a list of participants is

attached.

The Bank should support capacity building initiatives aimed at strengthening the country

procurement system taking into consideration the different levels of capacity in the country,

especially targeting those agencies whose capacities are low in order to bring them to a

reasonable level with others;

The Bank should take into consideration thresholds of national procurement policy in its

revised procurement policy for the various procurement methods especially with regard to

ICB, NCB and shopping procedures;

The capacity of the regulatory authority (National Public Procurement Authority) should be

built so that they can regulate the national procurement system properly including

participating in performance monitoring of contract implementation. In addition, agencies

should send copies of all contracts signed to facilitate this process; NPPA to continue

providing oversight role in the entire area of public procurement;

The government should ensure the recruitment of the right project staff to enhance smooth

project implementation as they have the requisite experience and qualification required for

the implementation of project activities;

The Bank’s new procurement policy should be expanded to cover the areas of contract

management as the current rules and procedures is limited in this area;


The Government should ensure that appropriate project staffing is identified and constituted

early enough at the commencement of project implementation, in particular the staff should

have sufficient knowledge and understanding in contract management. ;

The role of Civil Society Organizations should be revisited to allow for their active

participation in project monitoring and supervision in order to provide for an independent

opinion on contract performance by contractors, suppliers and consultants;

The Banks should support value for money assessments such as regular expenditures

verification and also carrying out procurement audit. The outcome of these exercises should

be disseminated and shared with stakeholders;

The Bank should encourage borrowers to adopt a commitment to consistent reporting on its

Banks financed operations;

The Bank should conduct an in depth assessment of the country procurement system at

national and sector specific to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of the

system. This will assist in identifying the necessary reforms needed and measures in

strengthening the system. Ultimately the goal of strengthening the systems is to allow for

greater use of the country systems in the long term;

The Bank should ensure the policy emphasizes the need to develop the capacity of local

contractors, consultant and suppliers to enhance their capabilities. This could be achieved

by encouraging international services providers to partner with local bidders in competing for

bidding opportunities which will facilitate capacity enhancement & knowledge transfer ;

The Bank should also ensure the policy include compliance with cross cutting issues such

as the environment, social, gender, child labor, insurance etc. In addition, these issues

should also be included in the standard bidding document as part the evaluation criteria so

that it could be enforceable;

The revised policy should encourage the use of e-procurement. Notable challenges with e-

procurement currently is the lack/or no availability of infrastructure and limited internet

access in the RMCs. The Bank should in the new policy identify risks involved in the use of

e-procurement and clearly assist RMCs in mitigation of such risks through the new policy;

The Bank should support the development of the required IT infrastructure in the RMCs to

support the use of e-procurement and also support the training of Key stakeholders such as

project staff, contractors, suppliers and consultants;

The Bank should strengthen the county procurement system through capacity building and

gradually start to use them especially under the National Competitive Bidding procedures

under the Bank financed projects. It was noted that other development partners such the


World Bank is currently using the NCB procedures of the country subject to exceptions

especially on areas where there exist deviation between National Procurement Procedures

(NPP) and that of the WB guidelines;

The Bank should exercise flexibility by increasing the thresholds for RMCs for use under the

post review procedures to fast track project implementation;

Given that the Bank’s procurement policy is to a large extent harmonized with other

development partners, they should continue to work with other development partners to

ensure full policy harmonization. For example if a project is co-funded by the Bank and other

development partners; where in the policies are harmonized it give the implementing units

the flexibility to use one policy instead of more than one;

The Bank should support exchange visits of procurement professional amongst RMC as

part of the capacity building efforts through sharing of experiences and knowledge transfer;

The Bank should support networking initiatives of procurement professional which will serve

as platform for information dissemination, experience sharing and knowledge transfer;

The Bank should retain the regional preference allowance requirement in the revised policy

which will demonstrate the African identity of the Bank;

The Bank should take the lead role to advance harmonization among developing partners

by providing a compelling case especially given the Bank’s uniqueness and understanding

of its RMCs.

The position of monitoring and evaluation officer should be considered critical to project

implementation and capacity building in M & E should be encouraged by the Bank;

During project implementation it is important to keep records on the performance of

contracts. Records on such non-performing entities should be availed in subsequent bidding

process to help weed out poor performers and assist the government to realize value for

money under the Banks financed projects;

RMCs should endeavor to conduct background checks on potential contractors by obtaining

from their previous clients information on their performance;

The government should strengthen the procurement planning process in agencies as the

rate of compliance to planning requirements of the national procurement policy is low. In

addition, this procurement plan should be utilized as an effective monitoring tool and

monitoring teams should therefore incorporate the appropriate skills mix during monitoring

of projects.


The government should be encouraged to organize regular forum where

contractors/suppliers/consultants would meet to assess themselves on the performance of

contracts awarded to them. The occasion will allow for exchange of experiences and

information sharing;

The government is encouraged to collect information/opinion from stakeholders from time to

time on the performance of contracts during project implementation;

The government is also encourage to conduct value chain analysis on the procurement

processes;

The Bank should consider the use of country procurement system as most of the deviations

identified in the NCB assessment conducted in 2011 between the Bank’s rules and

procedures and that of the National Procurement Procedures of Sierra Leone have been

included in the revised draft Act submitted to parliament for consideration and approval;

The revised policy should encourage access to information, maintaining effective and

efficient communication with stakeholders and also the involvement of the community in

project implementation monitoring to create a sense of ownership;

The Bank should continue to support the improvement of the country procurement systems

in line with the existing reform agenda;

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