October 8, 2018
Mohamed Kallon is interim President NAPP
As part of their study tour to Sierra Leone, the visiting Gambian Public Procurement Authority delegation met members of the Sierra Leone National Public Procurement Professionals.
Mohamed Kallon, interim President of the National Association of Procurement Professionals (NAPP) in Sierra Leone, who also doubles as Assistant Director in the Ministry of Education in charge of Procurement, told this medium that his Association was formed to champion the activities of procurement professionals in Sierra Leone over a year ago.
He continued that the meeting between NAPP and the visiting Gambian Public Procurement delegation was to exchange knowledge and best practices, while noting that the Gambians already have a system wherein all procurement professionals are certified and that this is how they would want to go as a professional association.
Mr. Kallon noted that Sierra Leone was far ahead of The Gambian insofar the practice of procurement is concerned, noting that they were hopeful that at the end of the meeting they would sign an MOU with the Gambian Public Procurement Authority that would in future enhance knowledge exchange, training and other professional development.
The Gambian Public Procurement Authority, headed by the Chairman of the GPPA, arrived in the country on a one week study tour.
The new Director General of the GPPA, Abdoulie Tambedou, described the tour to Sierra Leone as a way of understanding good procurement practices within the ECOWAS member states.
The National Association of Public Procurement Authority, according to its interim President, was established largely because procurement officials have over the years been working solo, being fraught with huge challenges and mixed results, apparently due to little or no team work.
The formation of the organisation, he continued, was to foster and strengthen collaboration, coordination, cooperation, communication and consultation among other procurement professionals in a more organised fashion.
The objectives for the formation of the NAPP, amongst others, was to ensure the observance of high ethical standards aimed at upholding the dignity of the profession in the country, enhance, develop and harmonise the procurement profession in the interest of public, private, non-governmental and international non-governmental organisations in Sierra Leone.