The participants used the Procurement Value Chain Analysis (PVCA) tool to find out what the procurement constraints had been in implementing the Government projects supported by the World Bank administered Multi-Donor Trust Fund for Southern Sudan (MDTF-SS).
This was the concluding workshop of the PVCA, which was started with a launch workshop on October 14, 2010. The PVCA study is the first of its kind in Southern Sudan and sub-Saharan Africa. It was used to provide empirical evidence of bottlenecks to the procurement procedures used by the Government of Southern Sudan.
The PVCA is a modern tool, which has been used to provide empirical evidence of bottlenecks to procurement processing in GOSS practices so that remedial actions can be designed to improve procurement implementation. The purpose of the workshop was to bring together stakeholders to validate the findings in the PVCA report and collectively contribute to the design of implementable remedial actions.
Some of the challenges identified by the analysis include the differing methods employed by different government departments and shortages of qualified staff to effect the government interim procurement procedure.
In his opening remarks at the workshop, the World Bank Southern Sudan Progam Manager, Dr. Laurence Clarke said “As procurement forms the major chunk of the total outlay of a project, its efficient management is crucial for the success of any project. Thus, the outcome of this analysis will definitely help to further improve the performance of the MDTF-SS in the remaining period. Participants should be frank in discussing the draft report so that the actual sources of bottlenecks are identified and implementable actions to remove them are found.”
The workshop far exceeded expectations in the outcomes, which were beyond the scope of the study that was limited to only the MDTF-SS projects, and included recommendations that will help improve GOSS procurement in general. Participants expressed their determination to implement the agreed actions including participating in committees to be created to ensure the collective making of procurement decisions. Mr. James Alam, Chief Engineer for Roads from Ministry of Transport and Roads made the closing remarks on behalf of the participants, promising to do their part to better procurement in Southern Sudan.