Capacity-building of PPRAs: plans to be mapped out under $45 million USAID project

The USAID on Thursday brought together federal and provincial Public Procurement Regulatory Authorities (PPRAs), donor community and other stakeholders to map out plans for strengthening transparency, accountability and good governance at provincial level public procurement processes under its five-year project worth $45 million.
The USAID funded Assessment and Strengthening Program (ASP-RSPN), organised a stakeholders' consultation workshop as a preliminary initiative to solicit the consensus of stakeholders in the government of Pakistan and development partners for strengthening the provincial PPRAs, so as to establish accountable, transparent and effective public procurement systems.
Launched in October 2010, the USAID would provide $45 million till 2015 under the project for civil society organisations and government of Pakistan' aimed at strengthening the capacity of local organisations to effectively manage development funds. ASP-RSPN will be directly assisting PPRAs on mutually agreed plans and will be responsible for the capacity building and strengthening PPRAs in Khyber-Pakhtunkhawa, Sindh and Balochistan.
Addressing the participants USAID Pakistan Deputy Mission Director Kareen Freeman said that the ASP was an initiative of the US government to assist the government of Pakistan in improving institutions and further harnessing the potential of the very able civil servants of Pakistan.
She said that the effort also focussed on supporting the government of Pakistan's efforts to ensure accountability, transparency and good governance, adding that the USAID was currently implementing its development assistance through government of Pakistan's institutions and systems and other local organisations in the civil society and private sector.
"This partnership requires that the US assistance is spent prudently and effectively in order to achieve the development objectives of the government and USAID", she said. She expressed the optimism that taking up the confidence of all the stakeholders by bringing them on the same page will prove beneficial in establishing the effective and dynamic PPRAs and would be fruitful in achieving the transparency, accountability and effectiveness in the organisations.
She believed that the role of the ASP funded by USAID and implemented by Rural Support Programmes Network (RSPN) was extremely important, adding that the program was helping the Pakistani organisations in building their institutional capacities for ensuring transparency, accountability and effective utilisation of foreign assistance as well as local public sector's development funds.
In this regard, she said that ASP was working with both the federal and provincial government departments to help improve and streamline their policies and procedures and strengthen them in the areas requiring assistance. The USAID Pakistan Deputy Mission also appreciated the initiative to bring together all the stakeholders, adding that the engagement will directly and indirectly help the USAID and other development partners and their programmes in sectors like energy, economic growth, education, health, agriculture etc in efficient, transparent and effective use of available resources.
Managing Director Federal PPRA, Khalid Mehmood Lodhi underscored the steps taken by the federal government in streamlining public procurements and highlighted the PPRAs achievements since its establishment. He said that PPRA was established to build and strengthen government capacity to develop a modern, public procurement system in the country. He, however, pointed out that a complete transparency on the part of the PPRA was not possible as it was only an advisory body and not an anti-corruption agency.
The participants underscored that ASP-RSPN's initiative of holding the workshop was a vital step for bringing on board all the stakeholders and initiating the process of strengthening and building public sector's procurement regulatory bodies. They said that the strategy of bringing together the stakeholders on a common forum sets the right path in achieving the goal of sustainable development of the country institutions. They further noted that activity will address the underlying bottlenecks in the organisational capacity of Pakistan's public sector management.