./.RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/WGTGP/W/20/Add.3
24 September 1998
(98-3679)
Working Group on Transparency
in Government ProcurementOriginal:  English
TECHNICAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES:  INFORMATION FROM
OTHER INTERGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS
AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK AND INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND
Addendum
At its meeting of 22 June 1998, the Working Group agreed to request the Secretariat to
provide information on the technical cooperation programmes of international and regionalintergovernmental organizations in the area of gove rnment procurement, so as to enable the Group to
have as complete a picture as possible of the availability of technical assistance in this field.
In consequence, the Secretariat wrote to relevant international and regional intergovernmental
organizations requesting them to provide such information.  The present document reproduces the
information which has been received in response from the African Development Bank by means of acommunication, dated 21 August 1998.
The Secretariat has been informed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by means of a
communication, dated 27 August 1998, that the IMF is working on fiscal transparency and is
advocating transparency in government procurement.  However, the IMF does not have any work
programme directly related to government procurement.
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The African Development Bank intervenes in its regional member countries through
providing loans and grants primarily in the public sector.  The Bank in its activities applies its rules of
procurement, which are devised to guarantee equity and transparency of the procurement activities.
Transparency is an important principle in the Bank's procurement rules.
By its mandate, the Bank must monitor and supervise all procurement activities under its
financing.  The monitoring process is carried out through the following activities:
(a) Procurement and Disbursement Workshop for the staff of the government who are
directly involved in project implementation such as project implementation units and
to the staff of the supervising line ministries.  These workshops are conducted at leastonce every two years in the Bank's borrowing countries.
(b) Launching missions for the start-up of projects are designed to train project
implementation units on the processing of procurement activities.WT/WGTGP/W/20/Add.3
Page 2
(c) Internally in the Bank, there is a Procurement Review Committee, which is an
independent body entrusted with handling complaints and issues of unfairness.  This
Committee provides a forum to the bidders to address their grievances in an
independent and transparent manner.
(d) The ADB Procurement Rules contain clauses which deal with the issues of
transparency and corruption during the procurement process as well as how bidders
can file their grievances against unfairness.  Bidders are free to send copies of their
communications on issues and questions with the Borrower to the Bank or to write to
the Bank directly, when Borrowers do not respond promptly, or the communication is
a complaint against the Borrower.
(e) Finally, the Bank will organize, in Abidjan, during the period
30 November - 4 December 1998, a continent-wide conference on publicprocurement.  Most of the 53 regional (African) member countries will be represented
in the conference at the policy and the operational levels.  The International Trade
Center, the World Bank, UNDP and the African Development Bank sponsor the
conference.
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