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Training in Public Procurement in the Western Balkans and Turkey Service Contract 2010/248-580 Inception Report

Service Contract 2010/248-580 Training in Public Procurement in the Western Balkans and Turkey Inception Report – period 22 September – 15 December 2010 i

Service Contract 2010/248-580 Training in Public Procurement in the Western Balkans and Turkey Inception Report – period 22 September – 15 December 2010 i

Inception Report

European Commission Service Contract No. 2010/248-580 for

“Training in Public Procurement in the Western Balkans and Turkey”

(Project identification no. EuropeAid/12974/C/SER/Multi)

Period: 22 September – 15 December 2010

Date: 15 December 2010 Revised : 8 February 2011

This project is implemented by a consortium of ITCILO and ADETEF,

The opinions and statements made in this document are those of the Consultant implementing the Project. They are not approved and nor do they reflect the official position or views of the European Commission.

This report has been prepared as a team effort by the project’s key experts.

Service Contract 2010/248-580 Training in Public Procurement in the Western Balkans and Turkey Inception Report – period 22 September – 15 December 2010 ii

Service Contract 2010/248-580 Training in Public Procurement in the Western Balkans and Turkey Inception Report – period 22 September – 15 December 2010 iii

Service Contract 2010/248-580 Training in Public Procurement in the Western Balkans and Turkey Inception Report – period 22 September – 15 December 2010 iv

Abbreviations and Acronysms CA Contracting Authority

EC European Commission

EU European Union

KIK Kamu Ihale Kurumu (Turkish PPA)

KIPA Kosovo Institute of Public Administration

IPA Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance

ITCILO International Training Centre of the International Labour Organsition

MoF Ministry of Finance

NFP The Consultant’s National Focal Point resident in the capital city of each Beneficiary

OECD Organization FOR Economic Co-operation and Development

PP Public Procurement

PPA Public Procurement Authority

PPO Public Procurement Office

PPP Public-Private Partnership

PPRC Public Procurement Regulatory Commission

RESPA Regional School for Public Administration

SEIO Serbian European Integration Office

SIGMA Support for Improvement in Governance and Management

SUK Human Resources Management Service (Serbia)

TLA Turin Learning Approach

TNA Training Needs Assessment

TOT Training Of Trainers

USAID United States Agency for International Development

http://www.usaid.gov/

Service Contract 2010/248-580 Training in Public Procurement in the Western Balkans and Turkey Inception Report – period 22 September – 15 December 2010 v

Service Contract 2010/248-580 Training in Public Procurement in the Western Balkans and Turkey Inception Report – period 22 September – 15 December 2010 vi

Table of Contents page Project Data Sheet ………………………………………………………………………….…………… 01

I. Project background, Project objectives and expected results…… …….………… 03

II. Purpose of the Inception Report ……………………………………………..……………. 05

III. Activities and Proceedings of the Inception Period ………………………… ………..06

IV. Findings by the Consultant …………………………………………………………………… 18

V. Approvals by the Client and the Project Steering Committee ……………………. 21

Annexes:

A. Reports of the start-up missions with the eight Project Beneficiaries

B. Proposed Project Website (including e-platform for the Regional Network of procurement professionals and the first phase TOT)

C. Composition, Scope of Work and Operating Procedures of the Project’s Steering Committee (including the role and responsibilities of the PPAs)

D. Updated Project Workplan (including assignment of experts to the various activities)

E. List and Curriculum Vitae of recommended senior non-key short-term international experts proposed by the Consultant

F. E-mail providing the Text of OECD copyright license

G. Proposed Job Description for the Project’s eight National Focal Points

H. List of project counterpart Public Procurement Agencies (PPAs)

I. Evaluation Grid for selection of candidate national trainers

J. Copy of timesheets for key experts during the Inception Period

Service Contract 2010/248-580 Training in Public Procurement in the Western Balkans and Turkey Inception Report – period 22 September – 15 December 2010 vii

Project’s Data Sheet

“Training in Public Procurement in Western Balkans and Turkey”

Project Identification Number: EuropeAid 129724/C/SER/Multi

EC Service Contract Number: 2010/248-580

Beneficiary Countries: Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Kosovo (under UNSCR 1244/99) and Turkey

Contracting Authority: European Union, represented by the European Commission / DG Enlargement for and on behalf of the Beneficiaries

Consultant: A consortium of ITCILO (Italy) and ADETEF (France), led by ITCILO

EC Project Manager: Mr. Pascal HERRY (DG Enlargement)

Consultant’s Team Leader: Mr. George JADOUN (Sustainable Development and Governance)

Contract signature date: 22 September 2010

Project duration: 22 September 2010 – 21 September 2012), 24 months

Service Contract 2010/248-580 Training in Public Procurement in the Western Balkans and Turkey Inception Report – period 22 September – 15 December 2010 1

I. Project’s Background, Project objectives and Expected Results

Project Background

The Project forms part of the Commission’s efforts designed to overcome the challenges confronting “Enlargement” as reflected in its Communication on this subject of 2009. The installation of “well-performing public procurement systems” in each of the eight Beneficiary administrations covered by this multi-country project is also explicitly emphasized as a “priority” in the respective European Accession partnership agreements. Therefore the context of this assignment/Project is to contribute to the reinforcement of “administrative capacity” and “good governance” in the public procurement function through putting in place cost-effective and sustainable national procurement training delivery systems that are based on the most recent EU Procurement Directives and appropriate training methodologies as reflected in the OECD/SIGMA resource materials.

Whereas all the Beneficiaries are progressively adopting national legal and institutional models for public procurement that are essentially compatible with the EU standards yet a lot of effort still needs to be invested on continuous human resource development in the procurement function. Hence this Project comes in order to contribute towards overcoming the current deficit in trained human resources in the Beneficiaries’ administrations and oversight institutions. The assessment stipulated in the TOR that “the installation of national training delivery systems is the weakest link of the public procurement systems in the Region” is further reinforced by the Consultant’s findings in the Inception Report.

Project objectives and Expected Results

The overall objective of the assignment/project is to contribute towards upgrading the operational performance and professionalism within the public procurement systems in the “Western Balkans and Turkey”. Its specific objective (purpose) is to “develop and ensure a sustainable procurement training strategy and a national system for public procurement training at all levels in the beneficiary countries”. It is envisaged that the latter shall be based on the SIGMA Training Package which will be fully adapted to fit the national circumstances in each of the targeted countries. Listed below are the expected results to be delivered through the execution of the contract/assignment:

Result 1: Infrastructure for regional cooperation within the public procurement community in all participating beneficiary countries established, including common tools and training materials, network of experts certified according to regionally recognized rules

Result 2: National training strategy in each beneficiary in place.

Result 3: Core team of national procurement trainers established, capable of customizing the training material to fit national legal and administrative contexts.


Result 4: Sustained delivery of face-to-face and online modalities of procurement training, in close collaboration with a recognized network of national training institutions.

Result 5: Regional network of procurement professionals created with a view to exchanging experiences in public procurement.



II. Purpose of the Inception Report

This Inception Report is prepared by the Consultant in accordance with the requirements of the Terms of Reference of this Project and as per the provisions of the corresponding Consultant’s proposal (both incorporated as Annexes II and III of the EC Service contract no. 2010/248-580). The Inception Report is therefore to be distinguished from the six-months Interim Progress Reports (required under Article 7.2 of the Special Conditions of contract) which are subdivided into a narrative Technical Section and a Financial Section, the latter being the basis for EC approvals of consecutive pre-financing instalments.

The purpose of this Inception Report is to:

i) appraise the current context for downstream implementation of the Project “Training in Public Procurement in the Western Balkans and Turkey”;

ii) establish first contact with the Public Procurement Agencies of each Beneficiary and other key stakeholders (including EU Delegations) in order to seek their active commitment in the realisation of the planned project’s outcomes and outputs;

iii) define the role, composition and operating procedures of the Project’s Steering Committee;

iv) coordinate this Project’s activities with those of ongoing procurement capacity development initiatives as well as to build upon the results (and lessons learnt) from previous and similar projects;

v) refine the Project’s Implementation Plan in the light of the findings of the three-months Inception Period;

vi) confirm the mobilisation of the Consultant’s team of key experts and activation of the partnership agreement forming the Consultant’s consortium composed of ITCILO and ADETEF. Also in this Inception Report the Consultant is proposing:

a) the names of “other experts” falling under the category of short-term international experts

b) definition of the job profile of the national contact/focal point of the Consultant who will be resident in the capital city of each Beneficiary. The national focal points fall under the category of “junior experts” as per contract provisions;

vii) start dialogue with OECD/SIGMA with respect to their experiences in the Region and the customisation of the training materials and subsequent arrangements for publication and copyright.

III. Activities and Proceedings of the Inception Period

1. “Kick-off meeting with the EC Project Manager (DG-Enlargement)”

Following signature of the contract on 22 September 2010, the Consultant’s team of key experts (Mr. Valeri Malotchko and Mr. Jan-Philippe Nadal) and the Team Leader, Mr. Geroge Jadoun, travelled to Brussels for a kick-off meeting with the EC Project Manager Mr. Pascal Herry. The meeting took place on 29 September 2010 at the EC premises and served to establish “meeting of minds” between the participants as to the context of this multi-country project, its implementation strategy and needed coordination mechanisms. In particular, the following items were discussed:

Introduction of the institutions and officials attending the meeting

IPA and multi-beneficiary interventions in “public administration and governance” in the Region

Contractual arrangements, including reporting

Monitoring (External) arrangements for the project

Commencement of contacts with beneficiaries

Relationship with SIGMA

Inception period and reports

First Steering Committee meeting

Mr. Herry started with an explanation of the context and rationale for implementation of this project highlighting the importance that the EC/DG Enlargement attaches to this Project and pledged his pro-active support to the Consultant’s team in overcoming various potential obstacles. He was satisfied with the Consultant’s prompt mobilisation and asked the Consultant’s Team Leader, Mr. George Jadoun, to outline the issues that need immediate EC attention. After brief introduction of the experts and a presentation of the Consultant’s strategy for implementation of the assignment as detailed in its proposal, the meeting then focused on substantive implementation issues as follows:

i) The OECD/SIGMA training package is copyrighted to the OECD

Mr. Jadoun indicated that he started contacts with OECD through SIGMA in order to secure their permission to use the SIGMA training materials for the full range of intended Project’s usage (translation into the various languages of the beneficiaries, customisation to the national legal and administrative contexts through suitable add-ons, granting of the right to reproduce the translated and customised training materials by the Project and the respective PPAs subject to maintaining references to the original author and the EC sponsor). At the time of this meeting, the negotiations between the Consultant and OECD were still in progress and Mr. Herry promised to extend his support as needed. These negotiations culminated in a satisfactory permission/licensing arrangement granted by OECD to the Consultant as per their e-mail of 8 November 2010. So far the Project is expecting to receive OECD’s formal letter but both the EC Project Manager and the Consultant are satisfied that the arrangement proposed by OECD is satisfactory for the project purposes. The Project’s Steering Committee


will examine this licensing arrangements in its first meeting to be scheduled in the second half of January 2011.

ii) Involvement of RESPA

Mr. Herry informed the Consultant that RESPA activities will be officially inaugurated on 11 November 2010. The EC appreciated the Consultant’s intended collaboration with RESPA as expressed in its proposal during the competition phase for this assignment. He also urged the Consultant to explore increased utilisation of RESPA’s premises and resources during project implementation. The Consultant promised to start consultation with RESPA at the beginning of the implementation phase in order to seek ways and means for their pro-active involvement in project activities. It is intended, as per the Consultant’s proposal, that RESPA will host and manage the Regional Network’s e-platform and activities following project completion.

iii) Contents and frequency of contractual reporting

Mr. Herry confirmed that six monthly progress reports will need to be presented by the Consultant. These reports will form the basis for discussion and assessment of project progress by the Project’s Steering Committee. There is no specific format or structure that is recommended for those reports but, as per contract stipulations, these reports should include in addition to the Technical Content a Financial Section that includes the experts’ time sheets and related financial expenditure data. The Inception Report is a “one-off” report meant to re-confirm the project’s implementation strategy and timeline as per the Consultant’s proposal with minor adjustments as deemed necessary through the findings of the Inception Period.

iv) External Monitoring Arrangements and the Project’s Steering Committee

Mr. Herry explained that the EC will undertake external monitoring of contract progress and achievement through an independent external consultant who may exercise periodic checks on project performance.

Mr. Jadoun also indicated that the external auditor of the International Training Centre of the ILO, namely the National Audit Office of Canada, will perform the regular audit of each of the project’s six-monthly expenditure statements.

Mr. Herry informed the meeting that he expects to receive within the Inception Report a write-up proposed by the Consultant on the composition, role and operating procedures of the Project Steering Committee. The Committee should be perceived as the overall oversight and guidance body representing the Beneficiaries and safeguarding their interest in this project.

v) Commencement of contacts with the Public Procurement Agencies of the Beneficiaries

Mr. Herry informed the meeting that the Consultant could now commence its start-up missions to the Beneficiaries. He advised the Consultant to obtain from OECD/SIGMA the precise addresses and names of representatives of the PPAs for each Beneficiary.


2. Meeting with OECD/SIGMA

On 6 October 2010 the same team of the Consultant’s experts visited OECD/SIGMA premises in Paris in order to brainstorm on the following issues:

i) Familiarisation of our consortium with the preparatory work undertaken by SIGMA in the process of designing this project in collaboration with the EC and the role that SIGMA could assume during implementation of this project

ii) Information about the scope and contents of SIGMA’s ongoing procurement training effort in the region.

iii) The results or recommendations arising of previous training, if any, using the new SIGMA training materials (which form the basis for the training to be conducted under this project). In other words to know if the SIGMA training package has already been validated through actual deliveries.

iv) ITC-ILO's intention to supplement the SIGMA-prepared modules with a module "training methodology" component based on the Turin Learning Approach (TLA)- though primary focus will be directed to training delivery skills.

v) SIGMA's assessment and advice as to their previous joint work with national training institutions in the region.

vi) Sharing of ideas as to how best to involve RESPA in the project.

vii) Names and exact contact details of all Public Procurement Agencies in the Western Balkans and Turkey (names of the representatives of our national counterpart institutions in the region).

viii) Copyright licensing arrangements of the SIGMA training materials.

The Consultant’s team was received by Mr. Marian Lemke who explained in detail SIGMA’s previous work in the Region and thereafter a discussion was held as to the Consultant’s approach for customisation of the SIGMA training materials and the incorporation of an additional ITCILO Module on Training Methodology. The Consultant indicated that necessary customisation will be incorporated in the pre-assigned places in the SIGMA modules using, to the extent possible, existing and appropriate national training materials, where available. The Consultant then received from Mr. Lemke an updated list of the project’s counterpart Public Procurement Agencies for each Beneficiary. The list was used by the Consultant thereafter to start its contacts with the Directors of the respective PPAs in order to arrange for the “start-up” missions. Since the Consultant intends to commence the translation of the SIGMA modules as of February 2011, Mr. Lemke was requested to provide the Consultant with the contact details of translation offices successfully used by SIGMA in the past. Such info may prove useful during the launch of the competition for translation of the SIGMA modules into each Beneficiary’s language.

As regards validation of the SIGMA training modules through actual delivery, Mr. Lemke indicated that SIGMA has based a number of its short training sessions on extracts of the package but there was no training activity that utilised the full package knowing that the package was only finalised recently, around mid 2010.

A discussion followed on the assessed capacity of national training institutions in the Region where it was clear that the project will provide an excellent opportunity for national training institutions to acquire a full set of national training materials that is


up-to-date and that incorporates an “easy-to-use” training methodology. Furthermore the project will reinforce the cadre of procurement trainers available to those training institutions for sustained and cost-effective delivery of their training portfolios. The meeting then explored the potential for involvement of RESPA in project activities which may go beyond hosting of training and managing the e-platform of the Regional Network of professionals. One idea was proposed by the Team Leader whereby RESPA could periodically organise refresher workshops, on annual basis beyond project life, for the network of certified national procurement trainers.

Thereafter Mr. Lemke arranged a meeting for the Consultant with SIGMA’s Reporting and Communications Officer, Mr. Thomas Dannequin, in order to follow-up on the status of processing of the license by OECD’s Publication Department to the Project in order to utilise the SIGMA training materials in the manner foreseen by the TORs of this assignment. Mr. Dannequin kindly accepted to continue pursuing the matter within OECD in order to speed up the issue of the license in a manner that fits the Project’s exigencies.

3. Project “start-up” missions

Following aforementioned meetings with the EC and OECD/SIGMA the Team Leader set out to contact the PPA Directors and the EC Delegations of the eight Beneficiaries in order to alert them with the commencement of project activities and also to schedule, with each of them, convenient dates for the project’s start-up and mutual introduction missions. As per the Consultant’s proposal these start-up missions were to be undertaken by 1-2 key experts at a time and for a duration of 2-3 days in each country. The purpose of the start-up missions was to:

explain project activities and rationale to the Public Procurement Directors and to request their nomination of candidate national trainers in Public Procurement ( the project will train 5 procurement candidate trainers in Phase 1 and up to 20 candidate trainers per each beneficiary in Phase II). The 5 candidates of Phase I must be fluent in English.

visit national training Institutions involved in public procurement training recommended by each PPA for assessment of their interest in the uptake and sustenance of the project's foreseen national training programs

identify in consultation with the PPA a potential Project's liaison officer on part-time or full-time basis (the Consultant’s National Focal Point resident in the capital cities of the beneficiaries)

closer familiarization of the Consultant with ongoing and recent projects implemented at country level in the area of public procurement reform and related capacity-building.

introduce the Project to the responsible official of the EC Delegation

The Team Leader also invited to Turin on 29 November 2010 the second Procurement Training key expert, Ms. Veronica Benedettelli, in order to brief her about project proceedings so far and in order to confirm her availability for a number of scheduled start-up missions.

All start-up missions could be scheduled during the period from 19 October to 1 December 2010 except for Albania. In the case of Albania the PPA has just launched a new Twinning Project in collaboration with the Public Procurement Agencies of Poland


and Romania. Due to the fact that the PPA in Tirana has recently undergone a down-sizing and re-engineering exercise, the Consultant was informed, through Ms. Francesca Aquaro of the EC Delegation, that the Albanian PPA’s current absorption capacity for technical assistance is overstretched and therefore it is advisable to postpone our project’s start-up pending further study as to how the two projects’ outputs could be rationalised for improved complementarity and elimination of any duplication.

The project’s Team Leader in consultation with the EC Project Manager, and following an in-depth study of the scope and objectives of the Twinning Project, will propose to the PPA Director in Tirana a plan of action designed to integrate the outputs and outcomes of both projects in a manner that best suits the actual needs and exigencies of the Albanian national procurement training system. In the meantime the first project’s Steering Committee meeting in January 2011 will provide an opportunity to reach an agreement with Ms. Cankja, PPA Director in Albania, as to the final course of action to be taken by this project in Albania in order to ensure that Albania does not run out-of-phase with the timings of the activities of this regional project.

The detailed reports of each of the start-up missions are incorporated here as Annex A. In this section of the Inception Report the Consultant presents highlights of the status of procurement reform and the functioning of the public procurement training systems for each Beneficiary.

Croatia – from 19 to 22 October 2010

The Law on PP modelled along the EU PP Directives has entered into force in 2008 (amendments in 2009). The new Law is planned to be adopted in second half of 2011. Croatia is at an advanced level in its accession negotiations and chapter V concerning “public procurement” has been provisionally concluded.

Coordination of activities relating to public procurement training is under competences of the PPA. Training modules were developed by the PPA and the Law requires each contracting authority who conducts procurement above national thresholds to involve at least one procurement officer who passed through the relevant specialised training programme. Under this specialised programme, delivery of training is decentralised and can be organised by authorities (private sector providers, NGOs) who gained approval issued by the PPA. For civil servants, this training is delivered by the Ministry of Public Administration - Centre for Vocational Training and Professional Improvement of Civil Servants.

Upon conclusion of this training, the PPA conducts examinations for such participants and certifies, for the purpose of the Law, those who pass the examination.

Other forms of trainings are carried out by the PPA as well, including the train the trainers in cooperation with the Croatian Chamber of Commerce.

The PPA has already submitted to the Consultant 14 CVs for potential candidate national trainers. The Consultant will interview these candidates over the phone or through video conference in order to select the five most promising.


Montenegro – from 26 to 29 October 2010

A new PP Law is under preparation through consultative process. It is expected to be endorsed by Ministry of Finance in 2010 and later submitted to Parliament for enactment. Montenegro received technical support through a number of technical cooperation projects which also delivered procurement training and the IPA project for “further development and strengthening of the public procurement system” is currently preparing a “National Training Strategy”.

Responsibility for delivery of procurement training in Montenegro is currently shared between the PPA and the Human Resources Management Authority. RESPA, being located in Montenegro, may also assume a role in this training effort according to the PPA.

The nomination of 5 candidate trainers from Montenegro has already been received by the Consultant and the interviews will be conducted in January 2011.

Kosovo (under UNSCR 124/99) - 15 and 16 November 2010

A new Law on PP has just been enacted by Parliament in November 2010 which signals significant progress towards approximation with the EU PP Directives. The new Law reconfirms the institutional framework of PP in Kosovo with 3 central bodies namely the (i) PP Regulatory Commission (PPRC) responsible for procurement policy, monitoring of procurement activities, training policy and PP website); (ii) the Public Procurement Agency as the central purchasing organisation for common-use items and for clearance of the use by contracting authorities of the negotiated procedures and (iii) the Public Procurement Review Body. The responsibility for procurement training delivery remains with KIPA (Kosovo Institute of Public Administration). The new PP Law stipulates that each procurement officer shall attend at least 15 days of training every 3 years that will entitle the trainee to a KIPA certificate. The request by PPRC to consider a two-tier approach to the training (basic and advanced) will be considered during the implementation phase of the project through the customisation process of the SIGMA training materials.

The PPRC has already submitted to the Consultant during December 2010 the nominations of 5 candidate national trainers as well as 12 alternative candidates.

Macedonia – 17 and 18 November 2010

The current Law on PP was adopted in 2007 and is deemed to be fundamentally compliant with EU PP Directives. Current emphasis is on improving implementation of the Law, promotion of e-procurement and refinement of the secondary regulation through the inputs from a number of EU technical assistance projects (Twinning Project with Germany starting February 2011) as well as inputs by USAID (e-procurement and training facilities).

The PPA is responsible for development of national procurement training materials and for training delivery. The PPA has developed a complete set of six training modules along the SIGMA structure but however there is no module on contract management. E-procurement is emphasised in the PPA modules. The PPA maintains the necessity for full involvement of its candidate trainers in this project’s Phase I, TOT. A list of 5 candidates will be submitted shortly. One concern for the project is that since these candidate trainers are all PPA staff then they may not be able to dedicate enough effort towards their role in the


customisation of part of the SIGMA modules and thereafter to review the rest of the materials which is envisaged to be developed by external national short-term procurement specialists.

Bosnia Herzegovina – 22 and 23 November 2010

The country has a complex administrative structure being a federation composed of three entities. The legal framework for PP is outdated and the PPA proposed a new Law on PP which, if enacted early next year, may mark a closer approximation with the EU PP Directives.

While training materials’ preparation is currently the responsibility of the PPA, yet the delivery of training is managed by the Civil Service Agency utilising private trainers. Current arrangements for delivery of procurement training are undertaken by the 3 branches of the Civil Service Agency at the level of the three autonomous entities however apparently using the same training materials prepared by the PPA. There are limited financial resources towards a real comprehensive training initiative. Prior Twinning Projects contributed to the training effort though only through ad hoc interventions with little lasting effect.

The PPA Director will advertise the opportunity to national applicants from the 3 entities to nominate themselves as candidate “national procurement trainers”. The PPA will do the initial screening and thereafter forward to the Consultant for interview assessment by phone or video conference. The PPA will be invited to participate in these interviews. If all goes well it is expected to finalise the selection of the 5 candidate trainers from Bosnia Herzegovina during the month of February 2011.

Serbia – 25 and 26 November 2010

The current procurement Law in Serbia is not fully harmonised with the EU PP Directives of 2004. A new Twinning Project with Danish Local Authorities Association started in September 2010 and will work towards proposing a new draft PP Law which is in compliance with the EU Directives. The PP office is an independent institution with its President confirmed by Parliament. However for procurement policy formulation it has to coordinate with the Ministry of Finance (MoF).

The PPO is responsible for development of training materials but delivery is undertaken by training institutions accredited by MoF. There are 50 procurement trainers in Serbia at present despite the fact that the country did not receive a large influx of technical assistance in the past. The PPO has developed a 200-page Rules Book as a training manual forming the basis of procurement certification in Serbia. On 15 December 2010 the first exam will be conducted by the PPO for 40 applicants who aspire to be certified.

The Human Resources Management Service (SUK) is also a provider of procurement training to civil servants based on PPO training materials. The Serbian European Integration Office (SEIO) provides training on European issues but so far it does not cover public procurement training. SEIO is planning to conduct Training Needs Assessment (TNA) for civil servants which may be very interesting to the TNA exercise planned under this project. Ms. Morandini of EU Delegation in Serbia highly recommended that our project links or coordinates with SEIO in the TNA exercise.


Substantial time was devoted by the Team Leader and the Training Expert to meet and coordinate with the Resident Coordinator of the Twinning Project in Serbia in order to avoid overlap and strengthen complementarity between the two projects especially with respect to the training dimension. It was agreed that the Twinning Project will use our project’s training materials in its foreseen training activities scheduled as of October 2011.

The PPO in Serbia has already submitted the CVs of 8 candidate national trainers for Phase I, TOT of this project.

Turkey – from 29 to 1 December 2010

The Turkish PP Law has several divergences from the requirements of the EU PP Directives. It is also limited in scope since it excludes concessions which are covered under an old Ottoman Law (Imtiaz). There are also 2 PPP laws, one covering the energy and road sectors and the other covering the Health Sector. Contract management is covered by a separate contract law and Turkey has developed detailed secondary regulations supporting the implementation of the relatively concise PP Law. No current plans are in place for revising the PP Law. The Public Procurement Authority (KIK) has the responsibility under the law for procurement policy development and for the design and delivery of procurement training. The PP Review Board is responsible for tenderers’ complaints and is presumably an independent organisation though hosted on KIK premises and headed by the KIK President.

KIK considers that its training offer will benefit from increased professionalism both in content and in training delivery methodology. KIK is self-financing through its dedicated income sources. The fees collected from contracting authorities across the country for tender advertisement are an important source of income. Its training delivery is demand-driven and training plan is based on demands of the contracting authorities. The State Presidency for Human Resource Development is in charge of training civil servants but does not have a role in procurement training. KIK currently organises its training in external premises (the premises of contracting authorities requesting the training) as well as on the campus of one private university (always the trainers are from KIK cadre of trainers).

KIK will have no objection towards involvement of other institutions in the delivery of procurement training as long as such institutions use KIK training materials and KIK-certified trainers thereby enabling KIK to maintain its supervision and quality assurance role over national procurement training.

KIK has already submitted the CVs of 11 candidate national trainers for Phase I, TOT of this project.

The above describes in brief the current state of affairs with respect to Public Procurement’s legal, institutional and procurement training contexts in the visited seven Beneficiaries. The Consultant’s findings and recommendations for the project’s downstream actions designed to put in place sustainable and cost-effective national training systems are later presented in the “Finding and Recommendations” section of this Inception Report.

A training system refers to integrated provisions of: (i) training materials based on the customised SIGMA modules plus (ii) identification and selection of national training


delivery institutions with related sustained funding mechanisms, the latter will form part of the national training strategies to be developed by the Project)

4. Development of the Project’s website and integrated e-platform of Phase I TOT and the Regional Network for Procurement Professionals

The Consultant’s work on development of the project’s website that will also serve as the combined e-platform in the English language for:

a) Phase I TOT (with a public page serving as the project’s website)

b) the Regional Network of Procurement Professionals

has commenced in October 2010. A proto-type of the proposed graphics and functionalities of the website and e-platform were prepared by internal ITCILO IT experts in early December 2010 and is planned to go “live” upon final selection of the 40 candidate trainers of Phase I scheduled during January/early February 2011. The e-platform will,therefore, host the Regional Network of procurement professionals that will be hosted and managed by the Consultant on the ITCILO server throughout project duration. Thereafter it will be hosted and managed by RESPA with a transitional period during the last few months of project duration as can be seen in the revised project’s workplan.

The architecture and functionalities of this dual-purpose e-platform are presented in Annex B of this Report.

Commencement of the work for the development of the website and e-platforms was carried forward when compared with the project’s original workplan, as incorporated in the Consultant’s proposal, in order to enable timely dissemination of information about project activities and also to give the 40 national candidate trainers sufficient time to pursue their scrutiny of the SIGMA training modules prior to arrival in Turin for Phase I TOT scheduled early March 2011.

5. Definition of criteria for selection of candidate national trainers

Due to the shortage in the number of candidate national procurement trainers who are fluent in English language (as became evident in the meetings with all PPA Directors/Representatives during the start-up missions), the Consultant maintained the selection criteria as prescribed in the assignment’s TOR. However a limited elaboration of the interpersonal skills component was made which will be assessed during the additional phone/video conference interview that is now incorporated by the Consultant into the selection process. Such additional screening of the candidates’ nomination will be undertaken by the Consultant in collaboration with officials from the respective beneficiary PPA. These interviews form part of the Consultant’s risk mitigation measures that are deemed critical for ensuring an acceptable success rate for the candidate trainers in both the written exam (at the end of the face-to-face TOT sessions) and also in actual performance as national procurement trainers during the observation/monitoring period. A sample of the evaluation grid of the candidates proposed by the beneficiary PPAs is attached as Annex J.

6. Selection of the project’s National Focal Points and short-term non-key senior experts

As part of the project’s start-up missions the Consultant team of key experts arranged for meetings with potential candidates for the role of the Consultant’s National Focal Point who will be resident in the capital city of each beneficiary. It is planned that the


National Focal Point will start his/her activities as of March 2011 and depending on availability to be initially on part-time basis to be later converted into full-time engagement when the bulk of the activities at national level will start as of September 2011. It was agreed to involve the representatives of each PPA in the selection process and the Consultant also requested the PPAs to recommend candidates, if any. This was deemed necessary in order to ensure a smooth working and coordination relationship between the Consultant and each beneficiary PPA and also to guarantee the selection of tested and experienced personnel for this post. The Consultant drafted the Job Description of the national focal points which is attached here as Annex G.

Also as part of the planned activities of the Inception Period, the Consultant proceeded to select the team of short-term non-key senior international experts who will be engaged by the Consultant for the following project tasks:

1. delivery of part of the sessions of Phase I TOT

2. performance as resource persons during the tutoring period of the TOT program

3. observance of the performance of candidate national trainers during downstream delivery at the national level

4. assessment of capacity and selection of national training institutions

5. development of the National Training Strategy for the eight beneficiaries.

All senior short-term non-key experts are selected from the rosters of tested procurement and training specialists with long track-record of previous collaboration with the Consultant’s consortium partners (ITCILO and ADETEF). They are presented here in order to enable advance scrutiny of their credentials by the EC Project Manager. Such prior approval of their engagement by the EC will facilitate their timely mobilisation where the need for their services arises thereby saving on project implementation time and alleviating the necessity for piecemeal clearances by the EC Project Manager that will be demanding on his time and potentially introducing risks and delays in the timely mobilisation of the particular expert.

A number of national short-term non-key senior experts were also met during the start-up missions but their names are not incorporated with this Report pending further consultation with the respective PPAs. Those national non-key senior experts will be used at the “country” level for similar tasks as foreseen for the international experts. They will also have a key additional task namely the development of the customised content of the SIGMA modules. In this respect these national short-term non-key senior experts will produce the write-ups of the customised content of the national procurement training curricula as add-ons to the translated SIGMA modules. They will supplement the customisation effort by the 40 candidate national trainers of Phase I who will assume part of the customisation work as take-home assignment between the consecutive deliveries of the 5 one-week modules forming the subject-matter contents of the TOT program. The importance of the role of the senior non-key national short-term experts in training materials customisation was further accentuated by several PPAs who expressed concern about the availability of the 40 trainers of Phase I TOT to invest sufficient effort and time for the training material customisation work.


7. Development of the Project’s Risk Register

The Consultant started its work on the development of the Project’s Risk Register in order to monitor the internal and external environments that could impede the project’s smooth progression as per the workplan.

The Risk register will list all the risks and assumptions identified by the assignment’s TOR and in the Consultant’s proposal and will elaborate alternative options for risk mitigation measures to be undertaken by the Consultant’s key experts team under the guidance of the Team Leader in order to avoid or reduce the adverse effects of such risks. The complete Project’s Risk Register will be presented as part of the first Interim Progress Report. Early project risks previously identified in the Consultant’s proposal were carefully addressed in the implementation of the Inception Period through safeguards introduced by the Team Leader concerning the process of selection of the candidate national trainers, the nomination of senior short-term non-key experts from tested rosters of long-term collaborators as well as in the process of selection of the National Focal Points in consultation with the respective PPAs. Similarly the start-up missions incorporated early consultations with ongoing procurement capacity-building projects at the level of each beneficiary in order to ensure complementarity with our project and in order to avert risks of duplication of effort.

One major risk currently facing the project represents itself in the late start-up of project activities in Albania. The Consultant is currently working, in collaboration with the EC, on alternative strategies in order to ensure timely nomination of 5 candidate national trainers from Albania.

8. Development of the Project’s Workplan

The Consultant in the light of the findings of the Inception Report introduced minor adjustments to the workplan which serve two purposes namely

i) easier presentation of the individual project activities through sequencing these activities in their chronological flow rather than relating these activities to the project’s results as initially presented in the Consultant’s proposal (a number of activities were contributing to more than one project result thus rendering a quick understanding of the workplan more difficult). There is no consequence of this re-organisation of activities either on project duration or project cost.

ii) incorporation of the actual commencement date of project of activities and minor adjustments to the duration of a limited number of activities like the nomination and selection process of candidate nationals trainers for Phase I TOT in order to reflect actual realities on the ground. Such changes have no impact on project duration or project cost since the changes in duration are within the permitted “float” in the original workplan.

The revised workplan is attached to this Report as Annex D.

9. Level of effort of the Consultant’s team of key experts during the Inception Period

The attached copy of the timesheets for the work undertaken by the Consultant’s team of key experts during the Inception Period indicate that the Consultant successfully managed to produce all the planned deliverables of the Inception Period at an “overall level of effort” that is below that foreseen in the contract and the Consultant’s proposal. However it is to be noted that no activities were undertaken by the


Consultant in one beneficiary country, namely Albania, and also that the consultant preferred to delay recruitment of its NFPs (national Focal Points) pending closer consultation with the respective PPAs and in order to avert having to pay them for relatively idle periods during the Christmas and New Year recess. Initially the Consultant planned part-time engagement of the NFPs throughout project duration. However it became clear through the Inception Period that it will be essential to have the NFPs on full-time employment as of September 2011 to coincide with the peak of in-country training and follow-up activities.



IV. Findings by the Consultant

The Inception Period provided a valuable opportunity for the Consultant to have first-hand audience with the Beneficiaries of the project in order to better understand the challenges they are facing in the pursuit of their endeavours to put in place sustainable and cost-effective human resource development systems in the public procurement function. It also allowed the Consultant to validate its approach for delivery of the assignment with various stakeholders including representatives of the EU Delegations at country level. The Consultant is comforted to report here that there is general consensus at the level of all beneficiaries about the importance and relevance of this project to their individual contexts (all of them took part in project design).

They all view the project as a “fit-for-purpose” vehicle that will effectively contribute to the set-up of an integrated human resources development system in the public procurement function (comprehensive training package plus intensively-trained trainers operating in close association with reliable national training institutions that are adequately funded and empowered for sustained training delivery). The main findings of the Inception Report can be summarised as follows:

1. The project’s concept of developing a comprehensive training package that spans all categories of procurement and that covers not only legal and procedural skills but also the business transaction skills is well-founded and fills-in a gap that is evident with respect to current training curricula used by all beneficiaries

2. There is a dire shortage in the availability of competent national procurement trainers at the level of the training institutions of all of the beneficiaries. The project’s approach to increase the supply of competent trainers is in response to a critical need on the ground. However the shortage of experienced procurement professionals who are fluent in the English language presented itself as a further obstacle in the pursuit of increasing the supply of national trainers through Phase I TOT. In this respect the Consultant could not lower the qualification thresholds of the level of English language fluency in the selection criteria for candidate national trainers of Phase I but, as a precaution and risk mitigation measure, introduced a supplementary check to verify compliance of the candidates with the selection criteria (as stipulated in the assignment’s TOR) through a telephone or video-conference interview to be held during January 2011. This was deemed as a necessary measure to safeguard the time and effort to be invested in preparing Phase I trainers. This could mean that the number of admitted candidate trainers/beneficiary does not necessarily have to be fixed at 5 per each country should one or more of the beneficiaries stand in the position of not having nominated suitable candidates. Such shortfall will be compensated for that particular beneficiary by admitting a larger number of trainer-candidates in Phase II TOT scheduled to be delivered in-country and in the national language of the beneficiary.

N.B. at the time of finalisation of this Report on 15 December 2010, five beneficiaries have already submitted their nominated candidates for Phase I TOT, namely: Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey. Nominations are still pending from Bosnia Herzegovina, Macedonia and Albania.

3. All beneficiaries recognise the need for gradual introduction of the requirement of professional certification in the procurement function. The project’s approach of starting with professional certification of the national trainers is well-received and

could provide a solid basis for acceptability of a wider national professional certification scheme at the level of procurement practitioners.

This could be incorporated as part of the Consultant’s proposal for the National Procurement Training Strategy of each beneficiary, if so deemed appropriate by the respective PPA. Needless to say that professional certification will be a valuable instrument to reinforce accountability and safeguard the integrity of the procurement function as well as to ensure improved quality assurance at the level of procurement operations.

4. The project’s strategy of earmarking part of the work for customisation of the SIGMA modules into the national legal and procedural contexts to the Phase I TOTs meets with:

(i) a practical requirement that the candidate trainers should associate themselves with the training materials that they will use and feel that the training material is their own material

(ii) the exigencies of the PPAs to have their own staff (through their TOT candidates) review and endorse the national training curricula.

However the SIGMA training materials are extensive in coverage and size and therefore the Consultant has foreseen substantial involvement by senior national procurement specialists in the customisation effort in order to supplement the work of Phase I TOTs in this respect. In spite of the aforementioned, a number of PPA representatives stressed the need to expand the role of Phase I TOTs by offering them incentives that will encourage them to invest more time and effort in the customisation work. Since financial incentives would not be acceptable under EC Rules, the Consultant will explore the adequacy of professional incentives in the form of sequestering the Phase I TOT candidates, where possible, to devote more time to work on the customisation process either in Turin or at RESPA premises where they could also be given real-time coaching and technical support by the project’s experts.

5. The Consultant’s national Focal Points will be appointed in consultation with the respective PPA officials in order to ensure acceptability of the candidates by each PPA and to guarantee smooth coordination between the Consultant’s headquarters and the various stakeholders at country level.

6. One beneficiary, namely Albania, risks to run out-of-phase with the project’s timeline for training activities due to factual circumstances on the ground that prevented Albania from timely engaging with the project (as detailed earlier in this Report). Suitable arrangements will be proposed to Albania, in consultation with the EC Project manager and the EU Delegation, in order to avert any negative consequences of this unexpected development and to keep Albania within the scope of work of this regional project.

7. A number of PPA representatives raised the need to develop national procurement training courses at two levels namely a) basic level and b) advanced level. The Consultant feels that the SIGMA materials could serve both levels. It is a question of more time being allocated to the presentation and practical application work to be devoted to the particular theme where advanced skills are to be imparted to the audience of the training. However the need for the provision of specialised training in particular categories of procurement e.g. IT procurement or pharmaceuticals procurement will be determined through the TNA (Training Needs Assessment) that


will be conducted by the project and should funds be available through operational savings then the project may expand its scope, with EC concurrence, to develop such specialised courses based on existing course materials already in use (in the English language) at ITCILO.



V. Approval by the Client and endorsement by the Project’s Steering Committee

The Consultant hereby forwards the following recommendations for the Client’s approval and endorsement by the Project’s Steering Committee.

1. Approval of the proposed project’s workplan as attached in Annex D

2. Approval of the list of the proposed short-term non-key senior international experts to be used in the delivery of TOT activities and other TNA and National Training Strategy development tasks as foreseen in the Consultant’s proposal. The list is attached as Annex E

3. Approval of the proposed composition, role and operating procedures of the Project’s Steering Committee as detailed in Annex C

4. Approval of the proposed “draft” for the architecture and functionalities of the project’s website and integrated e-platforms for Phase I TOT and the Regional Network of Procurement Professionals as presented in the attached Annex B.

5. Endorsement by the Steering Committee of the concept of nominating TOT candidates for Phase I and Phase II who represent an appropriate mix of public/PPA officials and private sector professionals including the academia.

6. Endorsement by the Steering Committee of the Consultant’s proposal to strengthen RESPA’s involvement in project activities through having RESPA organise refresher workshops for the procurement trainers of the region and Turkey on periodic basis. RESPA and ITCILO/Turin are also to host workshops for facilitation and experience-exchange in the customisation of SIGMA training materials into the national context.

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