From Monday 25th March to Wednesday 3rd April 2024, The Gambia College, in collaboration with the Gambia Public Procurement Authority (GPPA) conducted training for the College’s Specialised Procurement Unit, Contract Committee members and Senior Management staff on Public Procurement Processes and Procedures.
The purpose of this training was to enhance the capacities of the Gambia College Procurement unit as well as members of the Contract Committee and some Senior management staff in order to increase the institution’s level of compliance to public procurement rules in accordance with the GPPA act and policies. The training also exposed participants to the GPPA new act of 2022 discussing some relevant provisions.
Some of the topics covered in the training included the procurement cycle, procurement methods, procurement plan, procurement reporting and bidding procedures among many other relevant topics relating to understanding the role of GPPA as well as public institutions in ensuring proper utilisation of public funds considering value for money.
Throughout the training the lead resource person, Mrs. Jainaba Jallow emphasises the importance of compliance and the impartiality of contract committee members.
The training was generally very effective and has greatly enlightened the staff on procurement processes. Key takeaway by participants is the issue of treating certain procurement requests as emergency which do not really fall under the category of emergency issues cognisant of the procurement plan. Emphasis were put on following the right procedures all the time as much as possible.
At the close of the training, the Principal of The Gambia College Mr. Aboubacarr Jallow expressed delight for the successful completion of the training with a lot of enthusiasm. He assured the institution’s Specialise Procurement Unit of his offices continues support, ranging from capacity building to availability of resources to enhance their service delivery. He urged participants to make the best use of the knowledge acquired from the training because the importance of learning is to practice what you have learnt. He concluded by assuring GPPA of the readiness of Gambia College to be as compliant as possible, thus this training.
Also speaking at the closing, the head of Gambia College Specialised Procurement Unit Mr. Lamin Camara expressed gratitude to the resource persons from GPPA for being very resourceful and assured them of his unit’s commitment to compliance which justified the initiation of this training.
