The Need Assessment conducted by the Government of Liberia in conjunction with the United Nations and World Bank determined that the policy, procedures and practices for awarding contracts under public procurement and concessions were not done with economy, efficiency and transparency. Hence, it did not give Government the value for money used from public funds. It was then decided that public procurement and concessions be reformed in two phases: 

1) To prepare interim public procurement policy & procedures and interim guidelines for awarding concessions by the NTGL, and

2) To prepare a comprehensive public procurement and concessions law.

Contract and  Monopolies Commission (CMC)

In consideration of the first phase of this decision, Article XVII of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) signed in Accra, Ghana on August 18, 2003, established the Contract and Monopolies Commission (CMC) to oversee activities of contractual agreements undertaken by the National Transitional Government of Liberia (NTGL).

The CMC, with assistance from the Office of the European Commission in Liberia and the World Bank, prepared the Interim Public Procurement Policy and Procedures (IPPPP) as well as the Interim Guidelines for Concessions (IGC), which were endorsed by the World Bank and approved by the NTGL.  The executive Order # 3 was issued to grant authority to the CMC in implementing the IPPPP and IGC. The purpose of the IPPPP and IGC was to improve the current public procurement and concessions practices in Liberia by ensuring: competition, economy, efficiency, and transparency.

Public Procurement and Concessions Commission (PPCC)

The second phase of this decision was to prepare a comprehensive public procurement and concessions law. This effort was again facilitated with the technical and financial support of the World Bank and resulted in the preparation and approval of the Public Procurement and Concessions Act (Act).

THE ACT establishes the Public Procurement and Concessions Commission (PPCC) with oversight responsibility to regulate and monitor all forms of public procurement and concessions practices in Liberia. The PPCC replaced the CMC with elaborate mandates of monitoring procuring entities to comply with the Act of 2005 for all public procurement and awarding concessions, in order to ensure economy, efficiency, transparency and to promote competition so that Government gets “value for money”  in using public funds.

The World Bank, EC, UNDP and Government have demonstrated their commitments and supports for the full implementation of the Act.