United Nations Public Service Awards Case Studies

We would like to express our appreciation to the Office of the President and Cabinet for nominating the Directorate to participate in this important exercise. This is a clear indication that although the Office has been in operation for about two years, Government has recognised the important role the Department is playing in promoting transparency and accountability in public procurement.

The Office will continue to ensure that the provisions of the Public Procurement Act, the accompanying Regulations and Desk Instructions are implemented to the full. This is in spite of the various problems the Office is facing.

In our submissions below we have presented some key critical operational areas and achievements the Office has registered so far. With the prevailing enabling operational environment, we are geared to ensure that the visionary reforms currently taking place in the public sector in relation to ODPP’s mandate are fully implemented.

What is the initiative about? (the solution)
Since the Office of the Director of public Procurement operational in 2004, a number of successes have been registered. These include promulgation of the Procurement Regulations and Desk Instructions which eventually have seen the development of the national Standard Bidding Documents for use by all public institutions. The other achievement is the recruitment of key officers that have operationalised the administrative and professional activities of the Office in accordance with its mandate to monitor, regulate and oversee public procurement in the country. As an office in its infancy, ODPP has made strides in ensuring that its personnel become well trained in order to meet the expectations of the Procuring Entities. As such, with the financial support from USAID and World Bank my Office has been privileged to send nine of its professional officers to the UK for postgraduate studies in procurement. With financial assistance from UNDP in the project on Building National Procurement Capacity to Implement the Public Procurement Act my, office has since June 2006 set up Public Relations Office and further recruited a Public Relations Officer who has enhanced the awareness and sensitisation activities of my Office and marketed its very existence. Through the PR office ODPP has developed a one year Communication Strategy to run between June 2006 and May 2007. Again, as part of UNDP’s supported project on Building National Procurement Capacity to Implement the Public Procurement Act, my Office has established a website hosted on www.odpp.gov.mw which was launched mid September 2006. The website contains a wide range of information and publications that could assist Procuring Entities and all involved in public procurement issues to properly perform their duties. With the establishment of all the key departments, my Office has managed to carry out a number of training programmes for Procuring Entities particularly those that sit in the Internal Procurement Committees (IPCs) to help them to fully understand the new public procurement system and procedures. Such trainings are ongoing. As the custodian of the public procurement law and other procurement documentation, ODPP has made sure that all Procuring Entities access the Public Procurement Act, Public Procurement Regulations, Desk Instructions and the Standard Bidding Documents. In order to remain focussed and ensure that all public procurement programmes are developed and implemented in a coherent manner and in line with the prevailing public sector reforms, ODPP has formulated a three-year Strategic Plan to run between January 2006 to December 2008. The key priority of the Strategy is the acceleration of the implementation of the Public Procurement Act and its subsidiary legislation. ODPP is in conjunction with the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (Malawi Branch) is presently holding national consultative meetings with those procurement personnel and other professional bodies in order to strategise and get input towards the establishment of a professional procurement body for the country. The envisaged body will be responsible for the regulation and accreditation of procurement officers to ensure that they perform in line with their professional ethics and mandate.

Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
2003 - The Public Procurement bill passed in parliament and became operational the same year 2004 - Setting up of the Office of the Director of Public Procurement and appointment of its Director 2004 - Promulgation of the Procurement Regulations and Desk Instruction 2005 - Recruitment of key Officers to head the core departments 2005 - Intensified procurement training to the members of Internal Procurement Committees in various public institutions 2005 - Development of the national Standard Bidding Documents 2006 - Established Internet and Website connectivity and also Procurement reporting System 2006 - Setting up of Public Relation Officer and recruitment of the incumbent 2006 - Launch of the three year Strategic Plan 2006 - Sent nine professional officers for postgraduate courses in procurement in United Kingdom

Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
a. What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
The Malawi Government, dissatisfied with the way Public Institutions were undertaking procurement of goods, works and services (including consultancy services) sought the assistance of the World Bank to hire a consultant to closely look at this problem and identify possible solutions. A consultancy firm (International Procurement Consultants) was hired in 1996 and delved into procurement and supply management problems the country was facing. The Consultant produced a report for Government’s consideration in the same year. Unfortunately, due to structural changes that were taking place in Government at that time, no lead agency was designated the responsibility of following up the Consultant’s recommendations until recently, when the issue was given fresh impetus by Government and that has culminated in the enactment of the Public Procurement Act. It took some time before a Director to head the Directorate was identified. However, for the moment the Director was assisted in having the office set up and operationalised by the staff of the former Government Contracting out Unit (GCU) whilst continuing with recruitment process. The third phase of the Fiscal Restructuring and Deregulation Project (FRDP III), under which the Procurement Reforms were being supported, closed in June 2004. However, implementation of the Public Procurement Act still requires financial support in the foreseeable future. There were certain activities that needed to be accomplished in order to successfully implement the provisions of the Act. During discussions with World Bank officials then, a proposal was drafted for the Office to be included in the restructured Financial Management, Transparency and Accountability Project (FIMTAP) funded by the World Bank under the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC). This proposal was approved by the World Bank and now it is being implemented.

b. What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
Our first priority is to improve communication between the ODPP and the Procuring entities in order to effectively play the oversight role and the purpose is have easy communication between ODPP and Procuring entities. The second priority is to have a legal framework for managing assets and to have regulations governing stores management the purpose is have Regulations on Asset Management and Stores Instructions/Manuals in place. Third priority is to have properly qualified and experienced staff for effective discharge of ODPP mandate and to train members of the Internal Procurement Committees in the procuring entities on the use of the Public Procurement Act and its related Regulations/Desk Instructions. The purposes is have available appropriately trained staff in the ODPP and procuring entities and also have members of Internal Procurement Committees in the procuring entities who are conversant with the procurement systems in Malawi. The forth priority is to develop the Procurement cadre in the country by setting up appropriate terms and conditions of service and facilitate the establishment of their Professional Body. The purpose is to have terms and conditions service published and also to have availability of a recognised procurement cadre in the public service and a body to regulate and protect the profession Our fifth priority is to out source Procurement Audits to conduct an audits in a number of procuring entities at the same time transfer knowledge to officers at ODPP and conduct coordination workshops with other oversight agencies like National Audit Office, Internal Audit and Ant-Corruption Bureau. The purpose is to evaluate progress of the procurement practice and identify system shortfalls that need improvement and good working relationship with the other oversight bodies built leading to a reduction in public mistrust of the role of the three institutions in curbing corruption.

c. What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
The Office of the Director of Public Procurement has developed a strategic plan whose Vision is ‘to provide for a public procurement system which is transparent, accountable, efficient, and corrupt free’ and the Mission Statement is ‘to provide a professional, efficient and effective service in public procurement by formulating, implementing and reviewing policies which are transparent and adequate.’ In formulating the Strategic Plan, the ODPP took into consideration ‘Reforms’ Government is currently implementing such as the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MDGS) and other national and international initiatives on public procurement. The Strategic Plan has isolated the following six challenges that have an impact on the operations of the Office: - • Communication, coordination and integration; • Implementation of the Human Development strategy; • Capacity to Implement and Enforce the Legal Framework; • Public Awareness of Procurement Procedures; • Resource Mobilisation and • Cross cutting Issues such as HIV/AIDS, gender equity, the environment, human rights and good governance etc. Our strategic directions focus on the following objectives achieved by the preceding strategies: 1) To ensure compliance with legal framework on Public Procurement by a. Review of the existing legislation b. Developing a Monitoring and Evaluation system c. Conduct monitoring and evaluation of compliance levels d. Compiling compliance reports 2) To ensure that there is an appropriate legal framework for public procurement a. Review existing legal framework b. Ensure availability of legislation to stakeholders c. Dissemination if legislation to stakeholders d. Manage procurement functions e. Manage Registration of Suppliers f. Establishing and managing database of procuring entities 3) To build capacity in Public Procurement by: a. Training of public officers involved in procurement b. Ensure Procurement Units are established in Ministries and departments c. Sensitizing other stakeholders the public procurement process 4) To develop a cadre of Public Procurement Professionals by: a. Establishing career path for procurement profession b. Facilitate the establishment of a Professional Body c. Conducting a special need assessment survey for procurement specialists in public institutions d. Training and exposing the procurement cadres 5) To have effective mobilization and utilization of finances by: a. Preparing timely and realistic budgets b. Managing and maintaining financial records 6) To Ensure organizational effectiveness by a. Providing effective administrative services b. Providing Human Resource Services c. Providing ICT Services d. Providing Purchasing and Supplies services within ODPP

d. What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
Though it might be too early to state categorically what changes have resulted from these achievements, it can be stated here without fear of contradiction that the procurement system in Malawi is now more transparent than it used to be before the implementation of the provisions of the Public Procurement Act. One important aspect of the Act is that it has placed the responsibility for handling procurement in an institution with a group of people called the Internal Procurement Committee. Thus procurement now is not left in the hands of an individual. Therefore, the system now has checks and balances unlike in the previous scenario. The other change is that people are now getting confident in the procurement system and therefore are able to participate in the tendering process.

Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
Capacity building is right now being sustained through donor support. However through development of local training institutions and the training of trainers programmes it is hoped that sufficient capacity will be built up to continue training procurement personnel in larger numbers. It is also hoped that the private sector will support this programme through the offering of scholarships to students pursuing the training programmes. Development of a procurement professional cadre will be sustained by improving the terms and conditions of service throughout the public service to retain staff, and also facilitating the establishment of a professional body that will regulate and protect the interest of procurement professionals. Procurement audits and compliance monitoring will initially be contracted out to consultants who will work with local staff. By doing so it is hoped that there will be transfer of knowledge to the local staff who will eventually take on this responsibility

What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
The first difficult the Directorate is facing is that of shortage of trained manpower in the area of procurement to successfully implement the reform programme. This situation has obtained because of the low priority accorded to procurement issues in the past. It was generally felt that procurement was as simple as buying items off the shelf so it could be handled by every Jim and Jack - mainly the stores personnel. However, the Government has now realised that it is spending huge amounts of its budgetary allocation on procurement of goods, works and consultancy services and that misprocurement is leading to a waste of these resources. Hence through the Directorate, it has begun to train officers in the area of. Also as part of capacity building both in the Directorate and the Procuring Entities, the Directorate has developed a Training Policy and Strategy for the sector, which is aimed at training the procurement personnel at certificate, diploma and degree level. This training will be mainly done locally so as to maximize the number of officers to be trained. It is hoped that this will significantly increase the number of procurement personnel within the shortest possible period. Another obstacle the Office faces is that of resistance to change. Any system will be seen to be a good one to those that benefit from it and it is such people that will resist change. However, there are those that lose from the existing system who will support change. The very fact that the Act was passed is enough indication that a majority of the people of Malawi wanted things to change for the better. Nevertheless, there are still elements who are not happy that the procurement reforms are taking shape and would like to derail them. Fortunately, through some sensitization of stakeholders and Government commitment to the reform programme, such resistance is slowly being overcome. The third difficult faced by the Directorate is that of meagre financial resources at its disposal. It should be pointed out that the procurement reform programme was mainly supported by the World Bank. However, because of the importance of procurement in promotion of good governance a number of donors have now come in to support the Directorate's activities. These are the UNDP, the USAID and DfID. What is gratifying is that the Malawi Government too has substantially increased its budgetary allocation to the Department from K44.32 million in the 2005/06 financial year to K97.45 million in the 2006/07 financial year. This huge jump is a real reflection of government commitment to the success of the programme


Institution Name:		Office of the Director of Public Procurement
Institution Type:		Government Agency
Contact Person:		Bright Mangulama
Title:		Director
Telephone/ Fax:		+265 1 788111
Institution's / Project's Website:		+265 1 789082
E-mail:		odpp@malawi.net
Address:		Private Bag 383
Postal Code:		Lilongwe 3
City:		Lilongwe
State/Province:
Country:		Malawi

The Problem

Solution and Key Benefits

Actors and Stakeholders

(a) Strategies

(b) Implementation

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

(d) Use of Resources

Sustainability and Transferability

Lessons Learned

Contact Information