Regional Procurement Coordinator, Central Region, SNFI1 at African Development Bank Group (AfDB)

African Development Bank Group (AfDB) – Established in 1964, the African Development Bank is the premier pan-African development institution, promoting economic growth and social progress across the continent. There are 80 member states, including 54 in Africa (Regional Member Countries). The Bank’s development agenda is delivering the financial and technical support for transformative projects that will significantly reduce poverty through inclusive and sustainable economic growth.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Regional Procurement Coordinator, Central Region, SNFI1

Reference: ADB / 20 / 043
Location: Central Region, Cameroon
Grade: PL3
Position N°: 50071206

The Complex

The Senior Vice-Presidency (SNVP) is responsible for supporting the President in the day-to-day management of the Bank Group to achieve its strategic objective and drive performance culture that will align all processes and systems to deliver high impact results.
The SNVP will provide effective leadership and exceptional coordination to ensure implementation and monitoring of key corporate decisions as well as the identification of necessary corrective measures and actions.
The SNVP will lead Senior Management discussions, decision-making processes and the implementation of key Board and Management decisions.

The Hiring Department:

The SNVP supervises the Fiduciary and Inspection Department (SNFI), which acts as the custodian of the procurement (including procurement for private and public partnership) and financial management (FM) profession, and has the following responsibilities for its functions: (i) developing and interpreting policy, strategy and related guidance notes and manuals; (ii) preparing annual post review reports on the Bank’s FM and procurement operations for the Board; (iii) developing training strategy for internal and external clients; (iv) and dialoguing with external and global partners with a view to building partnerships and fostering harmonization; (v) providing the secretariat for the Procurement Review Committee (PRC); and (vi) inspecting and reporting on the performance of procurement and FM activities undertaken by the regions.
The Regional Procurement Coordinator is responsible to ensure that the project procurement activities financed by the Bank in his/her region done by his/her Procurement specialists team are compliant with the Bank’s procurement policy.
This is done by advising on procurement arrangements and reviewing procurement decisions of the Procurement Specialists’ team within the project/program operations cycle from the identification to completion stages.
The incumbent also contributes to the preparation of the Bank’s Country Strategy Paper, and to building procurement capacity of Borrowers which includes training of Borrower staff, advising on project related procurement matters, and assessing and strengthening the Borrower’s procurement systems.
The Regional Procurement Coordinator reports administratively to the Regional Operations Manager for Implementation Support (ROM-IS) and functionally to the Division Manager – Procurement (SNFI).

Duties And Responsibilities

Under the supervision and guidance of the Division Manager Procurement, the Regional Procurement will, in his/her duty station:

Ensure consistent, uniform and predictable application of the Policy within the region and provide corrective actions as appropriate;
Review procurement policy deviations and provide clearance for inclusion in Project Appraisal Reports (PARs) for subsequent Board approval with clearance of the manager as needed;
Review all cases involving the use of Third Party procurement methods and procedures and provide clearance for inclusion of those methods and procedures in the PAR for Board approval with clearance of the manager as needed;
Review and clear procurement diagnostic assessments reports (BPAR, Sector Market Assessments) for approval by the Manager and Director of SNFI, assist Regional member countries for their procurement reforms and mobilize financial resources for this assistance;
Review and clear the assessment of borrowers’ procurement systems done by the Procurement specialists team, and the design of adequate action plans to improve Borrowers’ procurement systems and to strengthen the institutional capacity within borrowers’ entities;
Participate with other Multilateral Development Banks in the assessment of the Regional Member Countries procurement systems;
Review and clear procurement cases as per the Bank’s Delegation of Authority matrix for Sovereign and Non-Sovereign projects;
Take a pro-active role ensuring ‘Quality at Entry work’ through supervision of a team of Procurement specialists across the region in terms of the Fiduciary and Development mandate of the Bank;
Follow up with Procurement Specialists of complaints received from bidders, contractors or civil society for their closing;
Deal with cases where the advice provided by the procurement specialist was not accepted by the task manager and finding solutions;
Facilitate and undertake training seminars /workshops for the Borrower and Bank Staff and Business Opportunity seminars for the regional and non-regional private sector
Prepare all Project Procurement brief for the Senior Management when required;
Monitor Procurement Data Entry by reviewing their quality through random checks to ensure that accurate procurement data are generated for SNFI reports;
Maintain procurement information regarding her/his region on the Bank’s Website;
Make sure to attain the objectives of the key performance indicators set up by the Procurement department by developing tools and;
Prepare periodic activity reports of the region and the Bank’s Annual Procurement Reports

Selection Criteria

Hold at least a Master’s degree or equivalent in Public / Business Administration, Law, Engineering, Procurement, Economics or related fields
A minimum of seven (7) years of relevant professional experience in providing procurement support and advice to the preparation and implementation of programs and projects financed by the Bank or any other similar institution in developing countries, having private sector experience will be an added advantage
Proven familiarity with and solid experience in the practice of procurement of goods and works and the acquisition of consultancy services under donor funding conditions, it would be desirable to have knowledge of Bank Procurement policy
Experience in supervising and effectively managing implementation of developments projects and programs
Ability to be flexible, open-minded with integrity, client and results oriented for achieving both Bank’s and Borrowers’ objectives
Effective consulting and advisory skills that enable Sector Staff and Borrowers to build their confidence and skills to deal with procurement issues
Good networking skills and judgment are required while working within teams and when building professional relationships with procurement specialists and sector specialists working in the Region
Strong leadership and coaching skills
Ability to communicate effectively (written and oral) in French with a working knowledge of the English
Competence with standard MS Office software (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), preferably combined with knowledge and experience of SAP operations.