The UNDG ITF procurement page on the website continues to provide detailed information on procurement opportunities and contract awards.

(c) In consultation with the United Nations Development Group and the Inter Agency Procurement Working Group, pursue initiatives within predetermined time frames to improve inter agency procurement activities (para. 78)

The increase in the case of the Field Administration and Logistics Division is attributable to the increased delegation of procurement authority to missions, where most procurement is sourced within the locality or region of the mission.

(xii) Procurement services posting of procurement plans and upcoming procurement opportunities on the Division's website preparation and issuance of tenders presentation of cases to the Headquarters Committee on Contracts, including review of procurement procedures being proposed and conducted by offices away from Headquarters and peacekeeping and other field missions award of purchase orders and contracts and negotiation and execution of contracts for the procurement of goods and services

Procurement activities in peacekeeping missions

In the meantime, the Procurement Service will organize a second round of the advanced field procurement training programme to upgrade skills of procurement staff in the field missions.

(3) Technical, organizational and legal expertise should be made available upon request to support non G8 countries in technology procurement processes.

The Division is responsible for the formulation of policies and procedures pertaining to worldwide and local procurement, for collecting information on market conditions in the respective mission areas and for participating in needs assessment and technical survey missions to determine the goods and services that can be bought locally.

In addition, the CEB members believe that the current modality of consortium buying and or the lead agency approach is capable of achieving the same results and benefits as those of a central procurement facility.

In this capacity he she will supervise the work and training of the procurement staff, undertake procurement planning, oversee the preparation and implementation of UNOMIG procurement policy and guidelines and the development of a procurement team at UNOMIG.

Aviation procurement in peacekeeping missions

(h) Two of the recently established missions did not have a procurement plan (paras.

Procurement by the Field Administration and Logistics Division of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, including missions procuring under delegations of authority, amounted to 122 million, or 4 per cent of total United Nations system procurement.

Permit local regional sourcing by missions

CEB members believe that the current modality of consortium buying and or the lead agency approach are capable of achieving the same results and benefits of a central procurement facility.

Total operational expenditure incurred by the those missions during the 2004 05 financial year amounted to 1.5 billion.

34. Requisitions should continue to be approved first by the Field Administration and Logistics Division using the electronic method of transmission before being passed to the Field Missions Procurement Section for procurement action.

The mission assets module provides the link to the procurement system and includes procurement information such as requisition and purchase order numbers, original purchase price and the length of serviceable life.

o In several instances, the Mission s Procurement Section interfered in the requisitioning process, resulting in splitting of requisitions and lengthy delays in processing.

Thus, the emphasis was changed to the commodity or service being procured rather than on the location of the office or field mission for which it was being purchased.

Three investigations into procurement irregularities at the Mission

4. The Mission acknowledged that the Procurement Section did not process requisitions with the timeliness and care expected of a professional procurement section and, as a result, the Mission and the Organization had suffered through exigent procurement exercises that definitely reduced the likelihood that required goods and services would be acquired at the lowest prices possible.

UNPD, in addition to procuring for Headquarters entities, also supplies peacekeeping missions around the world.

UNPD United Nations Procurement Division

See IAPSO procurement statistics at www.iapso.org.

On that trip, the Chief Procurement Officer was to be assisted by the procurement assistant referred to in paragraph 14 (whose earlier dealings in South Africa, according to the UNAVEM commission, were not above board ) and a representative of the Mission s Building Engineering Section.

81. The Procurement Division is the focal point of the Organization for the acquisition of a broad range of goods and services required by peacekeeping operations and other field missions that cannot be procured locally in the respective mission areas.

7. The UNAVEM commission had gathered strong evidence that the Mission s Procurement Section frequently awarded large contracts to a restricted group of suppliers in South Africa, who acted only as middlemen, thereby increasing the prices of the goods purchased, because of the mark up for commissions.

Registration of prospective local vendors

In addition to establishing system contracts and improved procurement planning, the Department will continue to work with Procurement Service to explore ways of further reducing procurement lead times at peacekeeping missions.

3. The audit team found that, in several instances, the Mission s Procurement Section had interfered in the requisitioning process, resulting in splitting of requisitions and badly delaying the processing of requisitions.

To support the activities of newly established peacekeeping missions, several staff members of the Procurement Service have been assigned to perform procurement functions.

The Procurement Service is working together with the Department of Peacekeeping Operations to improve the skills and capacity of the peacekeeping missions in procurement and contract management.

As part of the global procurement planning process, missions have been asked to submit their procurement requirements for the forthcoming budget cycle.

IAPSO Inter Agency Procurement Services Office

(b) Inter Agency Procurement Services Office

These include better procurement planning by requisitioning units, streamlining the procurement process in the Procurement Division and by the Headquarters Committee on Contracts and making necessary changes to the procurement framework, including regulations, rules and refinements in the Procurement Manual.

Many delegations stressed the need for United Nations procurement to be transparent and geographically equitable and argued that, to expedite procurement and encourage local contracts, greater authority should be considered for procurement officers in the field.

The African Group noted with keen interest the progress made by the Working Groups on Procurement, Arbitration and Conciliation, Transport Law and Security Interests.

The Section is considering new procurement practices to provide more flexibility for small purchases.

The Purchase Division should also be notified so that it can maintain accurate records of purchases made for each field mission and follow up on the delivery of the items.

As Table 1 suggests, procurement business is largely concentrated within the United Nations family itself.

If account is also taken of public procurement for development projects financed by the multilateral financial institutions, in particular the World Bank Group and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the value of procurement business represented by the international multilateral system approaches US 30 billion per annum.

The Procurement Division was reorganized, procurement staff received training, the delegation of procurement authority has been adjusted and new procurement guidelines were finalized.

JPS Joint Purchase Service