Owners of MSMES Trained in Performance-driven Procurement Practices
By: October 21, 2025 ,The Full Story
Fifty private-sector stakeholders, mostly owners of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) were recently trained in performance-driven procurement practices, through a collaborative effort between the Public Procurement Commission (PPC) and the National Health Fund (NHF).
The ‘Meet-The-Buyer’ symposium, held on October 14 at the Courtleigh Hotel and Suites in Kingston, saw contractors and consultants who have worked on NHF procurements and projects benefiting from the event.
The symposium was aimed at enhancing the procurement environment, while also maintaining high-quality performance by contractors and consultants.
Delivering opening remarks at the symposium, Executive Director of the PPC, Nadia Morris, highlighted that the event is an integral springboard for networking, knowledge sharing, and the advancement of training on the appropriate procurement and contracting practices required by procuring entities and their suppliers.
The Executive Director commented on the Contractor and Consultant Performance Evaluation Programme (CCPEP), which was launched by the PPC in 2023.
“It is a journey of results-driven performance, which intends to drive increased accountability from all stakeholders in public-procurement initiatives,” she said.
Mrs. Morris underscored that the CCPEP has changed the way in which business is done in Jamaica, as it establishes a uniformed set of criteria for rating the performance of contractors and consultants on public-sector procurements and projects.
She added that it develops a centralised base of information on the performance of contractors and consultants who participate in public procurement, as well as contributes to ensuring that contractors and consultants on public sector-contracts perform their obligations appropriately.
“As Jamaica undergoes significant, positive transformation, we can celebrate the introduction of CCPEP as an important cog in this wheel of development,” Mrs. Morris said.
“Let us support CCPEP and be committed to utilising it in our public-sector operations. This will also set a remarkable precedence for private sector operations to utilise similar accountability strategies,” she added.
For his part, Chief Executive Officer of the NHF, Everton Anderson, expressed delight at the partnership with the PPC. He highlighted that the NHF, which has over 930 employees, manages large contractual arrangements.
“These arrangements total a value of approximately $12 billion in contracts for goods, and almost $2 billion in works and services contracts during the last financial fear. The NHF team is to be commended for ensuring principled public procurement, which safeguarded transparency and accountability in the NHF operations,” Mr. Anderson said.
He also praised the contractors for the quality work they have provided and cited the Meet-The-Buyer symposium as a “win-win” for all participants in ensuring that procurements continue being “very fair”, that business operators have improved understanding of public procurement, and the public is better served.
At the symposium, MSMEs were given an opportunity to have their queries answered and give feedback on procurement issues. They were also trained in the changes to the public procurement law, guidance on understanding tender documents, response to and submitting bidding documents, contract administration, overview of the CCPEP frameworks and insights on maintaining high performance ratings in procurements.
Among the presenters at the symposium were, Chief Public Policy Officer from Office of the Public Procurement Policy of the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, Jovell Barrett; PPC’s Monitoring and Evaluation Manager, Welton Junor; Senior Director, Purchasing and Imports at the NHF, Ivor Corrie; Director, Institutional Benefits, Projects and Maintenance at the NHF, Richard Allen; NHF’s Director of Procurement, Erica McIntosh; and Procurement Manager at the NHF, Yashema Rodgers.
The PPC has trained 205 Procuring Entities with regard to CCPEP, and on-boarded them on the Data Visualisation and Business Intelligence (DVBI) platform – the online portal for depicting and analysing data for CCPEP.
Seventy-eight contractors and consultants have also been on-boarded on the DVBI platform.
Under CCPEP, ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) are the assessors and scorers for the contractors and consultants whom they have hired. The desired outcome is that performance will also inform future contract awards and supplier registration. The PPC is the regulator and implementer of CCPEP.