From: Officer-In-Charge, Procurement Policy Office

Ref: F/PPO/4/1/V6

Circular No 6 of 2013

From: Officer-in-Charge, Procurement Policy Office

To : Heads of Public Bodies

Help Desk for Advisory Services

In our quest to continuously improve the public procurement system, the Procurement Policy Office has set up a Help Desk to better assist all public bodies including Ministries and Departments.

2. The scope of the advisory services provided by this Office through the Help Desk includes the following:

(a)  Choice of procurement method, selection of the appropriate Standard Bidding Documents (SBDs) and customization of any of these SBDs, where they do not respond fully to a specific procurement of a public body;

(b)  Assisting in the development of evaluation and qualification criteria taking into account the methodologies proposed in the SBDs;

(c)  Guidance to develop additional conditions of contract based on public body’s requirements and technical evaluation criteria for a particular procurement where the contents of the SBDs do not cover fully the need of the public body;

(d)  Applying the general principles of Bid Evaluation;

(e)  Assisting public bodies in the interpretation of the provisions of the Public Procurement Act, Regulations, bidding documents etc at all stages of the procurement proceedings;

(f)  Customization of SBDs for Consultancy Services, Design-Build and Turnkey projects, and procurement of complex IT systems to support those public bodies that conduct such procurement occasionally; and

(g)  Assisting public bodies to make a decision to adopt framework agreement as a procurement approach and its implementation.

P.T.O

3. The advisory services extend to all types of procurement, irrespective of the contract amount, and are dispensed with a view to support public bodies to take the right decisions and enhance capacity of procurement Officials. However, the ultimate decisions rest on public bodies and this Office will in no way encroach on their prerogatives.

4. Public bodies may request for an advice or a meeting by contacting this Office by phone
(2013760) or (201 3782), or by email (). We aim at addressing the requests within three working days.

Procurement Policy Office

04 July 2013