News

Amman - November 19, 2009 – Under the patronage of His Excellency the Minister of Finance, Mr. Bassem Al Salem, the Ministry of Finance, in cooperation with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Jordan, the General Supplies Department held a workshop to launch its Certified Public Buyer Program. The event took place on November 19, at Kempinski Hotel in Amman. Attending this event were high-level government officials, namely H.E. Mr. Basem Salem, Minister of Finance; H.E. Mr. Ahmad El Mashaqbah, Director of the General Supplies Department; Charles Holden, Director General of the International Federation of Purchasing and Supply Management; and Chris Gallaghe, Director of Customer Solutions from the internationally renowned Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply; in addition to representatives of private sector and the media.

The purpose of the workshop was to engage influential decision makers, from both the public and private sectors, in a discussion on global trends in supply management on possible ways Jordan can follow and take part in these trends.The highlight of the workshop was a seminar led by Charles Holden and Chris Gallagher, who emphasized the new trends of procurement and discussed the global supplier relationship management in the 21st century. They highlighted the importance of the supply chain management excellence and the national value of professional association. The workshop was a product of continuous cooperation between the Ministry of Finance and UNDP Jordan to develop an effective and efficient government e-procurement system built to reduce human error, enhance the integrity of data, and bring transparency to government’s procurement processes to facilitate its standardization. As part of this system, the General Supplies Department, through its UNDP supported project, has established the Certified Public Buyer Program, which will provide training for public service employees in procurement departments on how to use this program to better manage the procurement process within their respective institutions. This Certified Public Buyer comes as a pre-requisite for a bigger plan to establish a fully fledged e- procurement system in 2010 in the General Supplies Department, which includes and e-procurement portal, document management system, work flow system, and e-tendering system.