Mr. Amadou Ceesay, the Human Resource Director of the Gambia Public Procurement Authority has disclosed that effective public procurement promotes competition in any developed or developing countries.

According to him, effective procurement means that every procurement is fit for its intended purpose, as it also takes into consideration social, economical and environmental procurements.

Mr. Ceesay made these comments in an interview with this reporter last Thursday at Dunes Resort Hotel.

GPPA’s Human Resource Director revealed that opening procurement for competitive bidding will ensure value for money in the final analysis, saying that over 60% of the national budgets are spent or consumed by procurement, thus the need to ensure that the process is done in a transparent and most accountable manner.

He said public procurement reforms and programmes are geared towards ensuring that the value of money are derived and conducted in a transparent manner. He noted that to reform effectively and implement structures certain things must be put in place, for example, the SUP Special Procurement Units and capacity-building training for Procurement Officers to ensure that they are trained on procurement processes as per GPPA Act.

Dilating on the capacity-building strategic plan 2009-11, Mr. Ceesay went on to explain that the trust of the plan is the development of professional procurement workforce that involves professional training exposure to best practices.

According to the Human Resource Director, they also partner with training institutions like MDI in archiving their targeted goals at GPPA, stressing that they had set up the procurement cadre and would ensure that the cadre is accordingly developed.

In a similar development, the three-day capacity-building training workshop organised by the Gambia Public Procurement Authority for Procurement practitioners drawn from different ministries and institutions in The Gambia also wrapped-up last Thursday at the Dunes Resort Hotel.

Also speaking was Dr. Amadou Kebbeh, the Director General of GPPA described procurement as a sensitive issue that deals with expenditure and money, adding that documentation is the weapon of procurement practitioners.

“Do not venture into something you did not know or understand,” GPPA Boss implored on Procurement Officers.