Introduction: The Joint Procurement, Financial management, and Disbursement Workshop was conducted during the period January 6-10. 2008 at Intercontinental Hotel in Amman- Jordan an as part of the Iraq Public Procurement System Reform Project financed under the Iraq Trust Fund-- Capacity Building II and in coordination with the Iraqi Ministry of Planning and Development Cooperation – Office of Government Public Contract Policy.  This workshop is one of a series of training activities sponsored by the World Bank to implement the programs and projects for Iraq reconstruction. The workshop designed to comprise parallel sessions in Procurement and FM & Disbursement and joint sessions for the whole participants in area of World Bank Guidelines for procurement, FM, and Disbursement, Anti Corruption, and Contract Administration.
At the end of the workshop, the participants received attendance certificates and evaluated the workshop.
Workshop Objectives: The procurement sessions designed to achieve the following objectives: (1) be thoroughly familiar with World Bank Procurement Guidelines and recognize the importance of sound public procurement practices to achieve economy, efficiency, openness, and transparency; (2) be familiar on procurement procedures, methods, and preparation of bidding documents for goods/ works; (3) be familiar on selection methods for services, and prepare request for proposals; (4) improving skills in preparing evaluation reports for procurement of goods, works and selection of consultants; and (5) be familiar on contract implementation and contract management. The FM and Disbursement sessions designed to achieve the following objectives: (1) Reintroduce Bank FM and Disbursement guidelines with a focus on fiduciary requirements, including Bank-anti corruption arrangements; (2) Analyze and address Disbursement issues currently experienced by projects (submission of withdrawal applications, payment instructions, special commitments, etc; (3) Introduce the Designated Account as an additional disbursement method to two pilot projects and explain the requirements of managing it; (4) Analyze and address FM issues (staffing, internal controls, accounting systems, reporting, auditing, etc.); and (5) Offer hands-on training through cases. Participants: The workshop attended by (66) person representing; (3) UNOPS staff, (3) Bank’s consultants, (7) EMCS- Bank’s FMA, (53) GOI officials from (12) different ministries that represent cross section of governmental institutions as follows: (4) Ministry of Education, (5) Ministry of Health, (4) Ministry of Municipality and Public Work, (4) Ministry of Environment, (10) Ministry of Planning, (4) Ministry of Housing and Construction, (5) KRG- Ministry of Housing and Construction, (2) Ministry of Electricity, (4) KRG – Ministry of Electricity, (4) Mayoralty of Baghdad, (4) Ministry of Water Resources, (3) Iraq Telecommunication and Post Company.
The workshop was designed to strengthen the capacity of the Project Management Teams working under Iraq Trust Fund or IDA financed projects.
Speakers: The speakers for procurement sessions were: Fred Kranz Procurement Consultant, Ahmed Merzouk- Sr. procurement Specialist , Afaf Khalil Abbasi – Procurement Specialist and Nazaneen Ali- Procurement specialist and TTL for the activity. The speakers for FM and Disbursement sessions were: Mona El-Chami - Financial Management Specialist, Hyacinth D. Brown - Sr. Financial Management Specialist, Hassine Hedda – Financial Analyst, and N.K. Thondaiman, LOA Disbursement Management Division – Chennai. |
