Talking business with the UN

Ugandans in the procurement and services sectors should tap into numerous opportunities of the $5 billion United Nations (UN) procurement service sector.
In this regard, Mr Francis Mwebesa, the minister of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives, rallied Ugandan businesspeople to take advantage of business opportunities presented by the presence of the United Nations Regional Service Center (UN RSCE) in Entebbe.

In 2022, the UN procured goods and services approximately $33 million from Ugandan suppliers. This is a less than one percent of the total procurement volume processed by the UN.
Mwebesa noted that $33 million is too little and there is need for more Ugandans to aim higher in doing business with the UN.

“When Ugandans are well-organised, the total amount of money they get from doing business with the UN could increase,” Mwebesa said.
Information from the United Nations Secretariat figures shows that the United Nations Regional Service Centre Entebbe (UN RSCE) has over 6,400 Ugandan suppliers registered to supply goods and services.
According to the UN procurement statistics published in 2021, the total procurement volume from Uganda amounted to $186.62 million and Uganda’s ranking as a supplier country by the UN procurement value, was 37 out of 193 countries.

Mr Paulin Djomo, director of the UN RSCE, noted that the RSCE manages more than $5b (about Shs18 trillion) of UN Secretariat resources and processes, nearly 66,000 commercial vendors’ invoices a year. 
 
“The number of Ugandan suppliers is very small (6,400). We would like to see an increase in Ugandan contractors doing business with the UN.  With your participation in this seminar, we hope you will have all the information you require to be able to register if not yet done,”  Mr Djomo said.
He noted that the top 5 procurement commodities in the UN Secretariat include: security, logistics (transport and storage), Industry, Industrial cleaning, Building & construction, and IT among others.

Procurement process
UN RSCE concurs that there are UN procurement principles and requirements that must be adhered to plus registering with the United Nations Global Marketplace if Ugandans are to scale up the number of local contractors from the current 6,000.
Mr Balakrishnan Amirthalingam, chief of Global Procurement Support Section (GPSS), United Nations Secretariat says there is a huge potential for Ugandans to supply to the UN because the UN procures goods and services starting with office furniture and maintenance, for peacekeeping missions such as fuel among others.

“Vendors must familiarise themselves with products and services required, register their businesses and be ready to offer their financial statements for the bigger supplies,” he says.
Some of the UN procurement categories consist of transitioning to Category Management, procurement volume, statistics, UN Procurement Principles, Typical UN procurement workflow, and Vendor Registration which must be adhered to for one to qualify for UN procurement.
Balakrishnan says that tenders for goods and services shall be invited by advertisement.

Advertising refers to the announcement of the tender solicitation through the posting of a Request for Expression of Interest (REOI) or Request for Information (RFI) on UN/PD’s website (www.un.org/depts/ptd) and/or the UNGM (www.ungm.org).
 Prospective vendors who respond to REOI or RFI will receive the final tender solicitation document.
It can also involve Internet and trade publications and journals; Information exchange with other UN Agencies; Selection from the vendor’s database based on commodity codes (UNSPSC) provided by the vendor in the registration process.

Principles of UN Procurement 
The financial regulation entails that Procurement contracts shall be awarded based on effective competition. 
The formal method of solicitations requires that: one, an Invitation to Bid (ITB) is normally used when the requirements for goods/services are simple and straightforward, can be expressed well quantitatively and qualitatively at the time of solicitation, and can be provided straightforwardly.

The qualified bidder will be one whose bid substantially conforms to the requirements outlined in the Solicitation Documents and is evaluated to be the one with the lowest cost to the United Nations.
Secondly, a Request for Proposals (RFP) is used for the procurement of goods and services when requirements cannot be expressed quantitatively and qualitatively.

 In addition, an informal method of solicitation involving a Request for Quotation shall be used for the procurement of goods, services, or works with standard and clear specifications and a total estimated value above $10,000 and up to $150,000.

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