USAID trains public officers on basic procurement practices for dev’t

Story from Usman IBRAHIM, Yola

The United State Agency International Development (USAID) State2State Activity in partnership with Adamawa Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP) has trained procurement officers on some basic procurement practices that will lead to the development of annual procurement plans and inclusive procurement practices for priority MDAs and LGAs.

Speaking at the training in Yola, Ms Suzanne Myada, State2State’s Public Financial Management specialist said that the overall objective of the training is to build the capacity of S2S priority MDAs and LGAs on how to better understand the state procurement systems and practices in line with the State BPP Law.

“The training is to provide participants with a procurement plan template and development of a checklist for procurement delivery like value for money inspection checklist.

“It is also to provide participants with insights on how to engender inclusive public procurement practices, including developing a gender and social inclusion checklist to inform the procurement practices”, she said.

Hajaya Maryam Shehu-Dikko, State2State team lead in Adamawa urged the participants to understand that an effective procurement plan promotes effective and prudent management of State resources in ensuring the quality of goods and services delivery.

She added that the training would also help facilitate transparency and accountability within the entire procurements and expenditure management processes.

She said the State2State priority sectors are Health, Education, Water Sanitation and Hygiene WASH while the selected LGAs in the training are Gombi, Yola-South, Mubi-North, and Numan.

Chabiyada Eli, State2State’s Coordinator, Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) said public procurement has great potential to promote gender equality.

According to her, they are important as they contribute to sustainable and inclusive growth.

Eli added, “It helps public institutions align with the national and international gender equality policies and regulations such as UN State Development Goals, particularly goal 5”.

She further encouraged the participants to always let the SMS understand the process to enable them to partake in the process.

In his remarks, Mr Elias Kita, Director of Procurement, Adamawa Bureau for Public Procurement, thanked and appreciated State2State for the training.

Kita who was represented by Yakubu Iliya, the procurement officer said that the training is timely and called on the participants to actively participate for the successful implementation of the knowledge acquired into practice.

He also advised them to step down the knowledge acquired to those who were not able to attend the training.

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