MONROVIA, Montserrado – Today, 307 Liberian-owned businesses will begin a training on bidding for government tenders.

The four-day training is funded by the United Nations Development Programme and targets private sector businesses registered within the Public Procurement and Concessions Commission’s vendors registry.

James Dorbor Jallah, executive director of the PPCC, said the commission had noticed that Liberian-owned businesses were challenged when it came to preparing bids.

Because the procurement process involves a lot of paperwork, Jallah said the smaller Liberian-owned businesses often do not have the capacity deal with the voluminous documents. As a result, they cannot take advantage of the opportunities the government provides to them.

“We want to help individuals involved with these businesses with the requisite skills in preparing bids tendering documents,” he noted.

James Dorbor Jallah, executive director of the PPCC, says Liberian-owned businesses are losing out on government contracts. Photo: Zeze Ballah

Jallah said he hopes the training can allow businesses owners to identify their mistakes and be provided with the requisite skills for submitting quality bids.

“There must be competition among Liberian-owned businesses,” he said. “Whatever money the government spends should have value and in order for such to happen, the contracts must be awarded to business entities that provide the best offer.”

While the government aims to see Liberian-owned businesses do well, Jallah said contracts have to be awarded not only because a business is Liberian-owned: “In order to win bids, Liberian-owned businesses must be able to prepare good proposals.”

Of the 307 businesses attending the training, 73 are owned primarily by women while 27 are based in rural Liberia.

Jallah said financial constraints mean that the PPCC could not include as many businesses from the rural areas as the commission would have preferred.

Featured photo by Carly Learson/UNDP