Liberian Public Procurement Makes Strides
Liberia’s Public Procurement and Concessions Commission has launched three initiatives to improve the procurement process across all Government of Liberia entities.
These initiatives, being supported by the USAID Governance and Economic Management Support Project (USAID-GEMS), include:
Pricing Guide. Recently created and now available to all government entities, it reviews a list of commonly used items, their specifications, and an average price index, derived as an average of multiple suppliers’ prices. This is serving as an easy reference for procurement divisions, as pricing guidelines can help them more easily negotiate for a better deal.
Vendor Registry. By training and then registering private sector vendors eligible to provide goods and services for government procurements, the PPCC is able to ensure that providers can meet the requirements of the procurement process. Training for providers, managed by the USAID-GEMS project, began in June 2015.
Framework Agreement. The Framework Agreement is the result of a competitive process and establishes an arrangement between government entities and providers on the terms under which specific purchases can be made. By setting up an agreement at the beginning of the fiscal year, government entities can make purchases throughout the year against these agreements, facilitating purchases at all times in the budget cycle, which was previously impossible to do.
By simplifying the procurement process, the PPCC is adding to the government’s ability to more effectively manage Liberian funds.
