Making Procurement a "Profession"

1
Making Procurement a "Profession"
2
The Challenge

• To demonstrate (in lt 10 minutes!) that new ways
  to strengthen procurement capacity can be found
  by comparing procurement with an established
  profession

3
Road map

• To do this we will
• examine results of recent procurement capacity
  building efforts
• identify generic issues weaknesses
• chart how these issues are addressed in an
  existing profession
• see if useful parallels emerge that are worth
  testing
• brainstorm how best to move forward

4
Todays Situation

• The general picture is still bleak
• project audits finger poor procurement as a
  root cause of project delays, cost overruns and
  corruption
• previous capacity building efforts in only rare
  cases have brought improvements, built
  sustainable capacity
• the need for fundamental change starting to be
  recognized

5
Generic Issues (1)

• Procurement viewed as routine, clerical
• Salaries too low to attract, retain qualified
  staff
• Procurement input not sought until too late
• The range of skills needed to implement a project
  successfully very narrow
• Impartial systems to validate these skills rare
• The procurement process is highly politicized

6
Generic Issues (2)

• Government attention limited primarily to bidding
  and award stages
• TA programs share this bias and often focus only
  on donor procedures
• The result? Skilled staff usually not mobilized
  at the right time, in the right numbers
• Quality of strategic project planning, contract
  management during implementation suffers

7
Need for a New Approach

• If we examine how an existing profession copes
  these issues, will fresh ideas, techniques arise?
  
• Who knows? But the current piecemeal approach is
  clearly not viable
• By focusing on the supply side (the lack of
  staff familiar with donor procedures), it
  neglects broad weaknesses in the function as a
  whole
• Procurement needs to be treated more as a
  profession

8
Medicine and Procurement

• Core features of the medical profession
• Rigorous well-defined academic curriculum
• Specialization
• Certification
• A system to maintain professional standards
• An ethical code

• How does procurement compare?
• No standard curriculum
• No common specialties widely agreed
• Few certification systems, procurement
  associations
• No ethical code specifically targeted for
  procurement

9
Possible Next Steps (1)

• Most agree the medical profession consistently
  provides a high standard of service. Lets see
  if certain features can help improve procurement.
  Some possible steps
• Get governments to start using skilled
  procurement staff throughout the project cycle
• Broaden procurement TA and educational
  development programs to start producing graduates
  with these skills on a long term basis

10
Possible Next Steps (2)

• Develop a range of procurement specialties (with
  associated range of academic and experience
  requirements)?
• Set up impartial professional certification
  systems to validate staff skills in these fields?
• Explore role procurement associations could play
  over time to maintain quality, improve TA focus,
  motivate staff to improve skills, etc.?
• Develop a procurement code of ethics?