BiP Solutions facilitates government of Montenegro visit
20 November 2009
BiP Solutions (BiP) – the leading supply chain solutions provider – recently welcomed and hosted a senior delegation from the Government of Montenegro’s Public Procurement Directorate for a week-long public procurement study tour of the UK.
The study tour was one element of a 20-month project entitled Further Development and Strengthening of the Public Procurement System in Montenegro, which is being delivered by BiP and funded by EuropeAid. The project is part of a larger scheme in which Montenegro is working towards fulfilling the criteria required to become a member of the European Union.
The Montenegro delegation arrived on 2 November, and commenced upon a comprehensive tour schedule organised for them by BiP’s Commercial team. The tour aimed to contribute to the exchange of knowledge between public procurement staff in Montenegro and their public procurement counterparts in the UK.
During the five-day tour, the Montenegro delegates took in a visit to BiP Solutions’ Medius headquarters in Glasgow; a visit to South Lanarkshire Council; and also to the Scottish Government’s offices in Edinburgh, where the delegation met with Barry Graham, Head of the Central Government Centre of Procurement Expertise (CGCoPE), and Paul McNulty, Deputy Director of Policy and Development, Scottish Procurement Directorate (SPD) at the Scottish Government.
The delegation then travelled to London to visit the Olympic Delivery Authority Buyer Engagement Team (ODA BET). The ODA BET are responsible for engaging and training London 2012 supply chain companies on the use of the CompeteFor contract opportunities portal, for which BiP Solutions is the service provider.
Paul McNulty said: “It was a pleasure to host our visitors from the Public Procurement Directorate in Montenegro and to discuss how the public sector in Scotland is meeting the challenges involved in reforming procurement practices and performance.”
Barry Graham said: “As an integral part of the Scottish Public Procurement Reform Programme, our mission is to make public procurement within the Scottish central government family more effective and efficient. CGCoPE was pleased to share our experiences with our visitors from the Public Procurement Directorate in Montenegro.”
The Director of the Public Procurement Directorate of Montenegro, Government of Montenegro, Mr. Mersad Mujevi?, said: “We have achieved a very good level of cooperation with the UK institutions, especially with BiP Solutions. From this experience, we have established the prerequisites for the creation of a new legislative framework and we have initiated the introduction of modern techniques for conducting public procurement in Montenegro. Additionally, we have identified further improvements of the priorities, with an aim of achieving better cooperation on issues such as common expenditures, data improvement and increasing value for money.”
BiP’s Commercial team is leading on the eProcurement elements of the Further Development and Strengthening of the Public Procurement System in Montenegro project. During the current phase, the team is designing a new web-based system for the collection and publication of procurement notices.
BiP Solutions’ Commercial Director Scott Smith said: “BiP is engaged across local and central government in the UK to optimise procurement process improvement and efficiency. This opportunity to share and exchange views on public procurement in the UK and Montenegro with our colleagues from the Public Procurement Directorate was highly valuable for everyone involved.”
Established in 1984, BiP Solutions optimises supply chain value by building knowledge and capacity across supply communities and providing an extensive complementary service portfolio to a diverse, dynamic and rapidly growing global client base. BiP Solutions Ltd’s services range from the provision of contract intelligence, end-to-end eSourcing solutions and knowledge transfer to consultancy, training and event services.
Further information on BiP Solutions’ Board structure can be found at www.bipcorporate.com/about/directorprofiles/
