Ivory Coast: Conclusions of the evaluation report validated.

For some time now, Côte d’Ivoire has been experimenting with a public procurement system based on the MAPS II methodology. An evaluation of the system was carried out on Thursday 8 February 2024, and the conclusions were approved by the steering committee.

On Thursday 8 February 2024, a meeting of the Steering Committee was held at the Office of the Minister of Finance and Budget, to discuss the conclusions of the evaluation report on the national
public procurement system in Côte d’Ivoire.

This meeting, held under the chairmanship of Mr. Vassogbo BAMBA, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Minister of Finance and Budget, Chairman of the Steering Committee, was attended by the Vice Chairman of the Regulatory Board of the National Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (ANRMP),the Secretary General of ANRMP, the Deputy Secretary General, in charge of defining ANRMP policies and training, the representative of the Director General of Public Procurement (DGMP), representatives of private sector and civil society organizations, the Regional Coordinator of the African Development Bank (ADB), and the international consultant.

Given the importance of public procurement to the national economy, the government has authorized a general and independent review of the public procurement system, using the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) new methodology for evaluating national procurement systems (MAPS II), with technical and financial support from the African Development Bank (AfDB). This decision is justified by the determination of the State of Côte d’Ivoire to bring its public procurement system into line with international standards.

During the meeting, Mr. BAMBA stressed the importance of this evaluation, which is an indicator that will give both stakeholders and decision-makers a clearer picture of how the public procurement system is working, with a view to undertaking the necessary reforms to make it more efficient.

Mr. OUATTARA Oumar, Chairman of the Evaluation Committee, presented the context, issues and process of the MAPS II evaluation. He indicated that the evaluation process began with the validation of the concept note by the MAPS Technical Secretariat in January 2023, followed by the training of the members of the Evaluation Committee and the stakeholder awareness-raising workshop from 22 to 24 March 2023. In conclusion, he pointed out that the conclusions of the evaluation report submitted to the Steering Committee for validation are the fruit of the technical work of the evaluation team, validated by all the stakeholders during the consultation workshop held on 11 and 12 December 2023 in Abidjan.

At the end of the working session, the conclusions of the evaluation report presented by the international consultant were validated by acclamation.

The validated evaluation report will be sent to the AfDB for review and certification by the Technical Secretariat of MAPS.