The Inter-American Network on Government Procurement (INGP), and the Agency for Public Hiring and Procurement (ACCE) in Uruguay, with the support of the Organization of American States (OAS), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) organized the Ninth Annual Conference on Government Procurement in the Americas from 17 to 19 September 2013, at the Radisson Victoria Plaza Hotel in Montevideo, Uruguay.

The Annual Conference is seen as the supreme instance of dialogue, exchange, organization and management of the INGP, constituted as the most relevant technical forum for disseminating advances in the development of government procurement in the Americas.

During the public session of the Conference more than 700 officials, academics and international experts in procurement, as well as other stakeholders in learning about the modernization of regional public procurement.attended the event.
  
        

During this session some important presentations were taken by experts in the different themes of the conference as: Trends and challenges in public procurement from a political and economic perspective, Impact of Reforms in Public Procurement, Public Procurement and Competency Anti-Corruption Policies, New Technologies in Public Procurement Service, Sustainable Public Procurement, Public Procurement at the subnational level, Design and Implementation of Framework Agreements, Public Hiring, Development and Access of the PYMES and Professionalization in Public Procurement.

It was also presented the Award 2013 “Joseph François Robert Marcello” on Leadership in Public Procurement, granted to José María Saravia Cruz, General Director of Public Procurement of Nicaragua, and an honorable mention to Mr. Eldis Sánchez, General Director of Public Procurement of Panama for his leadership and regional cooperation.

In turn, the Award on Public Procurement Innovation was granted to the Public Procurement Policy Unit of the Ministry of Civil Service of Mexico for its initiative CompraNet Mexico-Market Intelligence in the category of innovation in implementing new information technology on government procurement and for its high impact and contribution in public procurement. The award was received by Javier Dávila Pérez, Head of the Unit. Likewise, two prizes were awarded in the category of institutional reforms and/or regulatory framework to the following countries: 1. Panama in the Central Region with its initiative on Framework Agreements on International Air fares. The award was received by María Teresa Jaen, Director of PanamaCompra Framework Agreements. 2. Peru in the Region of South America with its Arbitration Record initiative. The award was received by Magali Rojas, Executive President of the State Procurement Agency (OSCE, abbreviation in Spanish).

On the private meeting only procurement managers in the countries of the Americas attended the event, as well as support institutions and international experts working with the INGP. During this session it was presented the progress of each country’s management in its last year as well as their needs, challenges and election of new authorities for INGP 2013-2014 period.

Ana Maria Vieira, Director of Logistics and General Services of Brazil was chosen as the 2013-2014 President of the INGP with a significant voting by the other countries in the region.

It also settled the new Executive Committee, now consisted of:

• Javier Dávila of Mexico for the North American area.
• Héctor Cerrato of Honduras for the area of Central America.
• Indrani Rampersard of Trinidad & Tobago for the Caribbean area.
• Juan Fernando Aguirre of Ecuador for the Andean area.
• Alicia Alonso of Uruguay for the Southern Cone area.

Finally, Paraguay was selected as the headquarters of the Tenth Annual Conference of INGP 2014.

To view the speakers and presentations during the sessions of the Ninth Annual Conference click below: