UTech to house Caribbean Regional Procurement Centre

After a rigorous and competitive process, the University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech) has been selected to house a Caribbean Regional Procurement Centre, which aims to improve procurement practices across the Caribbean.

The centre, which was announced last year by the Caribbean Development Bank and the World Bank, is expected to be operational by late this year.

It will provide high-quality training services, accredited by the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS), initially focusing on training for public procurement professionals in the Caribbean.

Public procurement is the process that governments go through to purchase work, supplies or services from companies.

A significant portion of a country’s financial resources can be devoted to government procurement agreements, with a 2011 Asian Development Bank report noting that 15 to 22 per cent of a country’s gross domestic product can pass through its public procurement system.

An efficient public procurement system can stimulate private sector growth, sustainable development, and allow for transparency and accountability, where citizens can monitor how their tax revenues are used. However, on the opposite side, a poor system can result in inefficiencies, corruption, and the loss of billions of dollars.

With many Caribbean countries facing weak growth and substantive debt after the recent global economic downturn, public procurement offers an opportunity to more effectively deploy scarce public funds and to stimulate sustainable investment.

As the selected entity, UTech will host and run the regional Procurement Centre on a sustainable basis.

It will develop a curriculum and training materials jointly with BIP Solutions Limited, a consultancy firm specialising in procurement, and CIPS, one of the global leaders in providing procurement learning solutions and qualifications.