The Organization of American States (OAS) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) will train 320 Haitian officials, starting Monday July 16, through an Online Course in “Management on Government Procurement”, which seeks to realize an effective public administration, and which is a priority for the OAS and the IDB in Haiti, based on the idea that the proper management of government purchases will allow for the saving of valuable resources which can be used for other important investment projects.

The opening ceremony for the initiative, which is part of the support of the two institutions for the process of modernization and reconstruction of the country, took place Friday, July 13, 2012, in Port au Prince and included an address from the Prime Minister of Haiti, Laurent Lamothe. The Coordinator of the National Commission of Public Purchases of Haiti Hulze Adolphe also took part in the ceremony, as did the OAS Special Representative in Haiti, Frederic Bolduc, and the Representative of the IDB in the country, Eduardo Almeida.

The selection of officials who will take part in the course was made by Haiti and its National Contracting Commission. The classes will be taught online in French, through the Virtual Campus platform of the OAS. The initiative is financed by the IDB and is supported by the Virtual Campus program of the OAS. The course is part of the OAS Virtual Campus portfolio, and is the fifth edition of the course.

In order to support the training of public officials in key areas of public administration, the Virtual Campus promotes a dynamic and participative methodology that offers concrete tools for effective government. To achieve this goal, the OAS has made available mechanisms based on levels of participation and costs that allow government entities and other interested parties to promote training within their personnel. The Virtual Campus program, created in 2003, recently reached its 10,000th participant.