Botswana has renewed its longstanding partnership with the United States Trade and Development Agency that will see the two cooperating in the development of high-quality infrastructure in the southern African country.
The US embassy in Gaborone said on Tuesday that Botswana’s Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) and the USTDA have signed a memorandum of understanding under which they agreed to cooperate on the provision of training and technical assistance to public procurement officials under USTDA’s Global Procurement Initiative: Understanding Best Value.
The memorandum is expected to extend Botswana’s status as a Global Procurement Initiative partner country for another three years.
USTDA committed grant funding for technical assistance to support PPRA’s implementation of new national public procurement regulations designed to strengthen the quality of Botswana’s infrastructure.
In 2014, Botswana became the first partner country under USTDA’s Global Procurement Initiative.
Since then, Botswana has made significant legal and regulatory advancements that prioritize transparency, best value and life cycle cost analysis in its public procurements.
“Botswana’s commitment to public procurement reform and making investment decisions based on best value sets an example not just for Africa but for emerging economies around the world,” USTDA director Enoh T. Ebong said.
USTDA’s technical assistance grant is expected to assist the PPRA to implement Botswana’s Public Procurement Act, including establishing rules, regulations, training requirements and implementation guidance to promote skills development, foster value-based procurement modernization and strengthen procurement professionalization.
The assistance would also help the PPRA establish auditing best practices as it takes on its new role as an oversight body.
JN/APA