Procurement of Consultancy Services

Public procurement of goods, works or services by public institutions, accounts for more than 14% of GDP in sub-Saharan African countries. It also accounts for a large percentage of government expenditures, in some countries covering more than half of government spending. A significant proportion of procurement expenditure is allocated to procuring of consultancy services. This notwithstanding, a large proportion of public institutions who are consumers of consultancy services face challenges in adopting to the world bank procurement framework that was launched in July 2016.

Over and above being conversant with the July 2016 world bank procurement regulations for consultants, there is a capacity deficit with respect to selection procedures, contractual issues, and negotiation techniques for hiring and supervising consultants and other providers of technical services for projects funded by the world bank and other financial institutions.  This programme is aimed at enabling officials involved in public procurement of consulting services to effectively undertake such procurements using best practices in line with the principles of the world bank’s July 2016 procurement framework. Further, the programme will address, inter-alia, policy and legal issues related to procurement of consultancy services. It is finally, aimed at improving the ability of procuring entities to realize better results and impact from procurement of consultancy and technical services.