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From 24-26 April 2007 the Government of Peru hosted the Latin America and Caribbean regional meeting on procurement capacity development in Lima. This event was sponsored by the Inter-American Development Bank and the Latin America and Caribbean Region of the World Bank in collaboration with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the OECD-DAC Joint Venture for Procurement.
This meeting was the second regional meeting (the first one held in Uganda) whose objective was to further procurement capacity development in various regions by bringing together partner countries and organisations to share their experiences in improving the quality and performance of national procurement systems.
Participants were invited from all countries in Latin America and the Caribbean and Lusophone countries in Africa. On the donor side, bilateral and multilateral agencies (MDBs, UNDP, EC and OECD-DAC Secretariat) were invited to attend.
Documentation
Using the OECD Assessment Tool to Measure the Quality of a Country's Procurement System - Scoring the Indicators (English, Français, Espagnõl, Português)
Creating a Prioritised Strategy Based on Assessment Results (English, Français, Espagnõl, Português)
Donor Coordination: "Supporting a Government-led Process of Procuremene Reforms in Latinlandia" (English, Français, Espagnõl, Português)
Presentations
OECD-DAC Joint Venture for Procurement: A Forum for Collaboration - Jocelyn Comtois (OECD-DAC Joint Venture for Procurement)
El proceso de armonización de los Bancos Multilaterales de Desarrollo y el impacto de la Declaración de París - Sabine Engelhard (BID)
Donor Coordination and other political challenges of the Paris Declaration - Micheal Lawrance (OECD-DAC Joint Venture for Procurement)
Baseline Indicators and Performance measurement Framework for Procurement - Bernard Becq (World Bank)
Reforma en el Sistema Peruano de Contrataciones Públicas - Luis Torricelli (CONSUCODE - Perú)
Evaluación del CPAR en Paraguay - Jorge Zárate (UCNT/DGCP – Paraguay)
Sistema de Indicadores OCDE/CAD: La experiencia de México - Brenda Álvarez (SFP – México)
Contratación Pública Electrónica Chilena: Los Nuevos Desafíos - Trinidad Inostroza (ChileCompra – Chile)
Compras Governamentais no Brasil. Estrategia Bottom-Up de Reforma de adquisiçoes. Combate à Corrupçao. Gerenciamento de Contratos - Carlos Enrique de Azevedo (SLTI/MP – Brasil)
COMPRASNET Sistema de Compras do Governo Federal - Carlos Enrique de Azevedo (SLTI/MP – Brasil)
PanamaCompra 2007. Avances y Logros en Contrataciones Públicas - Edilberto Ruiz (PanamaCompra – Panamá)
Workshop Summary
a) 23 countries from the region were represented by a group including many knowledgeable procurement professionals. The government of Peru acted very much as the host of an important international event - the issue of public procurement and fighting is one of the President of Peru's priorities. The President of the Cabinet of Ministers and the President of CONSUCODE ( the national contracting and procurement agency) opened the meeting and CONSUCODE provided the meeting secretariat.
b) Six countries made presentations on their procurement reforms and on their experiences using what was referred to as the " the OECD-DAC BLIs"ie the BLIs developed under the OECD/World Bank Roundtable in 2004 and the current, refined BLIs in the JV's version 4 (2006).
The countries were: Peru, Paraguay, Mexico, Chile, Brazil and Panama.
c) Latin America has made remarkable progress in implementing e-procurement systems: several country presentations highlighted the resulting benefits of easier procurement management, transparency, savings in time and costs and easier linkages to other government systems like financial management.The potential of such IT systems to generate data to measure performance was also highlighted.
d) There was a broad consensus that the the OECD-DAC methodology has facilitated a more systematic analysis of procurement systems and a better identification of areas of weakness needing strengthening. Some countries indicated the need for flexibility in order to develop "customized" performance indicators to suit their particular contexts.
e) It was agreed that numerical ratings are only intended as a tool to facilitate better identification of strengths and weaknesses and that evelators should focus discussions with stakeholders on substantive policy and system-related issues.
f) As not all the weaknesses identified have the same impact on procurement outcomes, it is recommended to do a risk/impact analysis in order to prioritize followup actions.
g) Self-assessments need confirmation or validation of the results to provide a degree of credability. The assessment process from planning to validation should include key stakeholders in the private sector and civil society.The assessment team needs to have an orientation session at the beginning of the process to agree together on objectives and the application of assessment criteria.
h) Procurement reform is a political, not technical, process; the prereqisite for success in any reform is political engagement and ongoing support.
i) Learning from other countries and regions and then upgrading or adapting methodologies and practices is a powerful tool for change; cross-fertilization of experiences has to be pursued actively.
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