The Procurement Service agrees with this recommendation.

Reviewed requests for equipment and recommended its procurement.

29. A new procurement manual is in preparation to reflect this recommendation and other procurement reform procedures.

The recommendations contained in the OIOS report (A 50 945, annex) concerning procurement handled by the Contracts and Procurement Service have been addressed by the transfer of procurement responsibilities to the Procurement Division of the Department of Management.

Review requirements for the procurement of equipment to be purchased in 1998 and make recommendations as appropriate.

UNDP agrees with the recommendation that procurement staff should have adequate and timely legal support (recommendation 4) and focus on certification of procurement staff (recommendation 5).

In its report on the biennium 1992 1993, the Board of Auditors recommended that all procurement requests be channelled through Procurement Unit.

(b) In its report on the biennium 1992 1993, the Board of Auditors recommended that all procurement requests be channelled through the Procurement Unit.

In addition, the recommendations of the High level Group of Experts on Procurement have been fully acted upon.

UNDP is firmly committed to e procurement solutions (recommendation 9) and capacity building in recipient countries (recommendation 10).

UNDP agrees with the recommendation on multilingual publication of Procurement Manuals (recommendation 6).

Implementation of recommendations of the High level Group of Experts on Procurement Rec.

87. It is proposed to maintain the current numbers of support account posts provided for the Section, which has 29 posts funded from the account 1 P 5 (Senior Procurement Officer), 8 P 4 (Procurement Officers), 9 P 3 (Procurement Officers) and 11 General Service posts (procurement assistant secretary).

Procurement training initiative

The Board recommends that the Administration should establish procedures to guide and monitor the procurement activities and enhance efficiency in the procurement system.

On the sharing of procurement performance benchmarks and best practices (recommendation 1) and the concept of lead procurement agency (recommendation 2), it should be noted that since 2004, the HLCM has incorporated the work of the Inter Agency Procurement Working Group (IAPWG) into the HLCM agenda.

(d) Networking of procurement services

The IAPWG strongly believed that with more complete information in hand about common procurement initiatives undertaken by the Geneva based Joint Purchasing Unit, a number of the JIU recommendations would need to be modified.

8. In view of the above recommendations, improvements were made in the Mission s procurement planning in 1996.

The Procurement Service instead proposed an amendment to the Procurement Manual that would deal with the issue.

UNDP believes that the formal aspects of reporting on procurement activities and the professional exchange of procurement experiences and best practices are currently within the mandate of IAPWG (recommendation 7).

(c) The promotion of an incremental approach to the establishment of e procurement and

The Board is concerned at these failures to comply with the Board s recommendation that such procurement actions should be undertaken by the Procurement Unit.

177. The Board recommends that the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda ensure that procurement case files contain complete and accurate information in order to enhance procurement management.

The Board recommended that the administration establish procedures to guide and monitor the procurement activities and to enhance efficiency in the procurement system (A 53 9, chap. II, para. 33).

The Board recommends that at least one senior staff member in each field office that regularly undertakes procurement should attend a procurement course.

Authority and responsibility for procurement

11. OIOS recommended that the Chief Procurement Officer of MONUA take appropriate action to create a reliable vendor roster, as soon as possible.

Taking this into account, the Advisory Committee recommends approval of posts for one Procurement Assistant (Field Service) three Procurement Assistants (national General Service staff) and two Procurement Assistants (United Nations Volunteers).

Accordingly, the General Assembly is once again requested to take immediate action on this recommendation, which has been postponed repeatedly, to the serious detriment of the Division specifically and United Nations procurement activities system wide generally.

The Tribunal accepts the recommendations and has implemented them in compliance with directives issued by the United Nations Procurement Service.

Draft resolution II Procurement reform

This recommendation has been accepted and analysis of the procurement activity is under way in an effort to reduce and consolidate transactions and identify other methods of procuring low value items.

The report recommends the further development of the existing common procurement guidelines of IAPSO into a generic system wide policy and procedures manual.

The Administration should establish a global procurement planning process in order to avoid unwarranted extensions of contracts and also to benefit from economies of scale where possible (para. 59) .

The Advisory Committee, however, underlines the importance of revisiting procurement plans on a quarterly basis to ensure that they are updated with regard to the operational requirements of a mission, and the need to enforce the use of procurement plans as tools to facilitate effective and efficient procurement management, as recommended by the Board of Auditors.6

The report recommends that the IAPWG adopt and implement the concept of a lead agency and promote a division of labour among the organizations aimed at further rationalization of procurement practices by its members.

It decided to entrust the drafting of proposals for the revision of the Model Law to its Working Group I (Procurement).

62. During its fifty second session, the General Assembly adopted resolution 52 226 of 27 April 1998 on procurement reform and outsourcing, which served to further reinforce the procurement recommendations made by OIOS.

In paragraph 236 of its report, the Board recommended that the Economic Commission for Africa request the assistance of the Procurement Division since renamed Procurement Service in implementing a code of ethics and the signing of declarations of independence of all staff members involved in procurement.

There are no provisions for construction services or acquisitions.

Capacity building in public procurement agencies in the recipient countries

The Procurement Service informed the Board that it would develop guidelines for the registration of local vendors in consultation with the missions.

The JIU report recommends a detailed review of the feasibility and efficiency benefits of such measures as the further strengthening of procurement reform at headquarters by establishing a central procurement facility at headquarters.

25. The Board recommends that the Office finalize the handbook on procurement procedures as a matter of priority.