The Chief Executive Officer for the NPPA, Ibrahim Swaray, has officially opened the 2018 Annual Public Procurement Forum at the CATCO Hotel in Freetown.
The theme for the two day session is‘Embracing Transformation to Change the Future of Procurement.’
The NPPA Chief urged practicing procurement officers, the donor community and business people to use the forum to discuss very frankly the issues facing the sector, noting that the sector is now digital all around the world and Sierra Leone, according to him, should not be an exception.
Mr. Swaray noted that they should be able, as procurement professionals, to embrace the transformation process in the sector, noting that vote controllers and other parastatal heads, in MDAs,have been treating procurement officers as clerks, adding that this is time to ensure that the business of procurement is treated seriously.
He spoke on preparations for the commencement of the transformation process after the implementation of Phases 1 and 11 of the process,and called for transparency and accountability in the business sector.
Mrs. Georgiana Kamara, Director, Public Sector Reform Unit at the Office of the President, who is chair for the two day session, noted that the Annual Procurement Forum is an activity provided for in section 14 (2) of the National Public Procurement Act of 2016.
She stated that it is a forum wherein donor partners, the business community, civil society and procurement professionals dialogue around the issues of transformation facing the sector, while also bringing out the key challenges facing the sector.
Mrs. Kamara noted that the profession involves professionalism, dynamism and integrity. He urged participants to discuss the issues frankly around where they are and where they need to go as procurement professionals.
Chairman, National Commission for Privatization, Napoleon Koroma, noted that they as a government are highly committed to push forward with the objectives of the New Direction.
He told the session that the President campaigned on the promise to block the leakages and improve on revenue mobilization drive and that, seven months down the line the government is rigorously pursuing a number of actions towards fulfilling this campaign promise.
Government, Mr. Koroma noted, is highly determined to improve on procurement processes across MDAs by solving the perennial issues confronting the procurement process in the country. He called on the procurement officers to practice the profession with integrity with a view to realize the President’s dream.
The NCP, he stated, will support all efforts to ensure that there is sanity in the entire process. He congratulated the NPPA Chief for the strides already taken to bring sanity into the process under his watch.
The NPPA Chief later made a presentation on the topic: ‘Public Procurement in Sierra Leone –Where we are and where we need to go’.
A panel discussion was done on changing the future: What can we do to get to where we need to be involving panelists from Non-State Actors, Chamber of Commerce, Parliament and HRMO, amongst others.
Key presentations were also made by the Procurement Adviser, EU State Building Contract Programme, Rosie Adey, on Transformational Procurement, while NPPA Capacity Building Consultant, Mr. Kelvin Kelley, also made a presentation on Transforming Public Procurement through the development of a standardized Public Procurement Curriculum climaxed the opening session, which continues today.