Supporting the Iraqi Independent High Electoral Commission: a new model to explore for future trainings in electoral procurement for EMBs

As part of itspost-election activities and lessons learned, the Iraqi Independent HighElectoral Commission (IHEC) had identified a need to strengthen its publicadministration, including planning, procurement and contracting.

Upon request from theIHEC, UNDP therefore supported the facilitation of a comprehensivetraining on procurement and elections in Copenhagen, from 17-25 May 2011. The training was the result of a successfulcooperation between the Global Programme for Electoral Cycle Support (GPECS)and Quality Assurance and Professionalization unit (QAP) of the ProcurementSupport Office (PSO).

GPECS and PSO customizedand facilitated the training for 10 IHEC staff members covering different rolesand departments ranging from audit, finance, and legal to contracts andtenders. Also participating were two staff members of UNDP Iraq and one staffmember from the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq.

A key advantage of thisinitiative was that participants benefited from the UNDP/Chartered Institute ofPurchasing and Supply (CIPS) Procurement Certification programme, which hasbeen entrusted to UNDP by CIPS in the United Kingdom since June 2010. Throughthis initiative, UNDP offers procurement certification courses that have beenaccredited by CIPS, one of the leading bodies in this field, and therebyensures compliance with high international qualification standards. Thecertification is accredited externally by CIPS and participants are required topass two formal tests/exams.

The CIPS training wasmodular-based and covered a wide spectrum of issues such as the theories andpractices of the principles of public procurement, procurement planning andrisk assessment, writing specifications, sourcing suppliers, evaluatingbids/proposals, contract and supplier relations management, incoterms and insurance.All modules were supported by election case studies and exercises, building onthe electoral cycle approach.

A much-appreciated andvaluable element of the training was the IHEC staff members’ visit to theirDanish electoral management body (EMB) counterparts for an introduction to agovernment-centred model that is quite different from their own independentEMB. In Denmark the Ministry of the Interior is responsible for performingtasks in connection with general elections, referendums, elections to local andregional councils as well as elections of Danish members to the EuropeanParliament. The ministry also manages the political party subsidy scheme of thecentral government and acts as secretariat to the Election Board and theEligibility Board. Throughout the visit participants showed particular interestin understanding issues of transparency and management models, as well asnational ballots printing and political party schemes, among others.

All participants passedthe first part of the formal exam and are currently preparing their home-basedassignment/analysis for submission to CIPS by the end of August 2011. Thereforefinal certification is still ongoing. Language issues were a major priority:All presentations and exercises for this training had to be translated intoArabic, and exams were written in Arabic, translated to English and thensubmitted to CIPS.

The effective andinteractive structure adopted in this workshop was a cornerstone of UNDPsupport to institutional strengthening, which includes the principles oftransparency, integrity, fairness, value-for-money, sustainability andstrengthening national ownership. The structure could possibly be a model toexplore for future trainings for EMBs in elections and procurement.