A. Background
1. In order to cope up with the urgent task of reconstruction, the Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan (TISA), with the help of the donor community, established in May 2002, the Afghan Assistance Coordination Authority (AACA) and arrangements were quickly put in place to and auditing.

2. Under the ‘Procurement Strengthening Component’ of the Emergency Public Administration Project (EPAP_ - I, the AACA appointed a Consultant as the country’s central Procurement Consultant (PC) to put in place emergency procurement capacity to facilitate rapid and transparent utilization of donor resources for reconstruction and development. The contract of the PC became effective on August 15, 2002 and had concluded in December 2004. From December-2004 RITES Ltd has been engaged as new Procurement Consultant (PC). The Contract was signed in September, 2004. The new PC has taken over the Procurement Consultancy since December 2004.

3. AACA has since been dissolved (September 2003) and the part responsible for procurement was renamed Afghanistan Reconstruction and Development Services (ARDS) and made responsible to the Ministers of Reconstruction. The Ministry of Reconstruction and Ministry of Planning have now been merged and named as Ministry of Economy.

4. In continuation of EPAO-I, the TISA received a grant from the IDA for implementation of the Second EPAP. The TISA has planned to avail an IDA grant for a Public Administration & Capacity Building Project (PACBP). The objective of the PACBP is to assist the TISA and its successor, in putting in place, on an emergency basis, capacity in key public administration areas to facilitate better use of public resources, including donor funds, for urgent reconstruction and development efforts, In addition, a secondary objective is to support some basic steps towards laying the foundation for a transparent, well-functioning public administration.

5. The sub-component of “Procurement Strengthening and Support for ARDS” now rechristened as “Procurement Facilitation Services for ARDS” is aimed at putting in place emergency procurement capacity to facilitate rapid, transparent utilization of donor resources for reconstruction and development. In order to operationalize this, the ARDS has engaged the services of a Procurement Consultant for a period of 3 years with effect from early 2005, for handling procurement work for IDA and other donor funded items.

B. Objectives of the Procurement Unit
1. The objectives of the Procurement Unit are:

To put in place emergency procurement capacity to facilitate rapid and transparent utilization of donor resources for reconstruction and development;

Economy and Efficiency in the implementation of the project, including the procurement of the goods, services and works involved.

Giving all eligible bidders from developed and developing countries the same information and equal opportunity to compete in providing goods and works under donor financed and other projects.

E encourage development of domestic contracting and manufacturing industries in the borrowing country; and
eEnsure transparency in the procurement process.

C BRIEF ABOUT THE ARDS PU

1 WHAT IS IT?
2 WHY IS IT HERE?
3 HOW WAS IT ESTABLISHED?
4 WHAT DOES IT DO?

1 WHAT IS IT?

The ARDS Procurement Unit assists ministries undertake procurement in accordance with donor requirements. It also provides advice and guidance on procurement matters to the government of Afghanistan as required.

The PU has a team comprising foreign procurement specialists, Afghan Procurement Liaison Officers and Procurement Officers who work together with ministry staff to achieve transparent and effective procurement of goods, services and works. The PU is part of the ARDS which itself is supervised by the Minister of Economy but it is not part of that ministry.

2 WHY IS IT HERE?

In 2002 the World Bank provided 4 grants to support Afghanistan:
Emergency Public Administration Project
Emergency Community Empowerment and Public Works Project
Emergency Education Rehabilitation and Development Project
Emergency Infrastructure Reconstruction Project

A requirement for these grants to become effective was that the government of Afghanistan sign contracts with 3 firms to provide the following services:
Financial Management
Audit training
Procurement

Following separate international tenders, 3 firms were appointed to provide these services. The Crown Agents for Oversea Governments and Administrations was contracted by the Afghanistan Assistance Coordination Authority (AACA) to provide procurement services. This included assisting ministries with the emergency procurement of goods and services funded by the World Bank, drafting a procurement law and providing training in procurement for ministry staff. After expiry of the term of M/s Crown Agent in December 2004, M/s RITES has been engaged for providing procurement consultancy services.

3 HOW WAS IT ESTABLISHED?

The PU was initially part of the AACA and reported to the Director and Board of Governors through Afghan managers appointed to AACA at various times. Following the closure of AACA in October 2003, a new unit, the Afghanistan Reconstruction and Development Services (ARDS) was formed to manage the work of and to support the PU and the Technical Assistance and Feasibility Studies Unit.

4 WHAT DOES IT DO?

Assist users in preparation of Terms of Reference, specifications or scope of works.

Draft procurement notices and arrange for publication in the specified electronic portals as well as in the local press and sent to embassies, registered firms, trade missions, the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Prepare guidance for various evaluation procedures including bid opening etc.

Prepare bidding documents for goods or works and Requests for Proposals for services in accordance with the standard documents specified by the donor.

Issue of the bidding documents to short-listed firms (for services), pre-qualified contractors (for works) or to firms that have registered interest in bidding for specific goods.
Guidance in evaluation of bids, proposals etc.
Guidance on matters that could be negotiated (services and works) or adjusted (goods) and the preparation of standard contract documents for signature by the implementing ministry.

Assistance in the preparation of documents by the implementing ministries to enable goods to clear customs in Karachi or Iran.

Assistance with post shipment issues that may arise – damaged goods, shortages etc.