The Asian Development Bank (ADB) intends to allocate $300,000 for the implementation of a new regional technical assistance program entitled "Strengthening Regional Environment for Public Procurement and Institutional Capacity in CWRD Countries," Report informs, citing the ADB.
The project covers 10 countries in the region - Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Türkiye, and Uzbekistan.
The key objective of this initiative is to align national public procurement mechanisms with best global practices.
At the preparatory stage, ADB experts, in cooperation with relevant government agencies, will develop conceptual approaches to diagnostics and capacity building of procurement systems, taking into account the current needs of the participating countries.
"The funded diagnostics under the TA may include OECD Methodology for Assessing Procurement Systems (MAPS) assessments, results-based lending (RBL) fiduciary system assessments, eGP and APA assessments using ADB's methodology, country and sector/agency procurement risk assessments (CSPRAs) that support the country partnership strategy (CPS) and strategic procurement planning (SPP) process, ad hoc assessments related to aligning national systems to WTO GPA requirements in accession countries, ad hoc assessments of regional arbitration centers and the relevant legal frameworks governing arbitration to support their modernization and compatibility with ADB-financed contract conditions, and/or other ad hoc policy or system-level assessments related to public procurement and contracting that may arise on request.
Some of these diagnostics require broad societal participation, such as MAPS assessments, that would seek to engage interested civil society and private sector stakeholders in providing their feedback on the public procurement system. Knowledge-sharing events organized upon completion of the diagnostics may also engage these stakeholders to participate and share their views within the event," the ADB said in a statement.
To date, the ADB has financed 145 projects in Azerbaijan totaling approximately $5.5 billion.