Advisory Group on Public Procurement launched

ISLAMABAD: A high level forum on public procurement established to improve efficiency, accountability, transparency and public procurement system in the federal and provincial government departments and entities, has formally been launched. The inaugural meeting of “Advisory Group on Public Procurement (AGPP)” was held in Bhurban on 1st April 2013 which was attended by senior officers of Federal government, PPRA, Provincial governments and provincial PPRAs besides the finance departments of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB). The meeting was jointly organized by USAID, Assessment and Strengthening Program and the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA).
The representation on the AGPP comprises of the provincial PPRA’s, finance departments and development partners. The chair of the group will be the Managing Director of PPRA government of Pakistan. The AGPP is mandated to act as a forum to coordinate and harmonize interventions of federal and provincial government and development partnersin the field of public procurement and contribute to the development and implementation of a National Procurement Strategy.
USAID Deputy Mission Director Ms. Catherine Moore commended the efforts made by the government to make public procurement systems efficient, transparent and accountable. She reaffirmed the U.S. government’s commitment to strengthen Pakistani institutions for good governance when she said, “The ultimate goal of a well-functioning public procurement system is to achieve value for money. Every government should have a clear strategy to achieve the highest value using international best practices that emphasize transparency and efficiency.”
Managing Director, Public Procurement Regulatory Authority, Ms. Nazrat Bashir said thatthe formation of such an expert group would help create a culture where good procurement practices and policies are accepted and encouraged. She termed the event as a landmark achievement where all stakeholders have joined hands to make the procurement system transparent and effective.
During the two day event, a draft National Procurement Strategy was proposed to outline the challenges and approaches to implementing the ideas shared. The strategy will help in identifying areas where federal and provincial Public Procurement Regulatory Authorities can benefit from each other’s experiences and will outline where synergies are needed to upgrade Pakistan’s procurement systems to the international level.