Seef District, 3rd July 2008, Thursday: Bahrain's Tender Board has consistently been at the forefront of efforts to maintain transparency and good governance values in all aspects of tenders and purchases. Now, in a special effort to involve the Kingdom's private sector in its ongoing e-tendering system, the Tender Board has joined hands with the Labour Fund (LF) to train owners and employees from the private sector on navigating the e-Tendering process.

The two organisations signed a milestone Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) today (Editors: July 3rd, 2008) under which 300 companies will receive training on using the e-Tendering system to capture a bigger share of government contracts. The MoU was signed by the Minister of Oil and Gas Affairs and Chairman of the Tender Board Dr. Abdul Hussain bin Ali Mirza and the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Chairman of the Labour Fund Dr. Nezar bin Sadiq Al Baharna.

"The timing for such an initiative is just right," observed Dr. Al Baharna, "With Bahrain rapidly adopting new e-Government initiatives such as e-Tendering and the Kingdom going through a development boom that is seeing more and more governmental interaction with the private sector, it is imperative for companies to be able to use new technology tools such as the e-Tendering process to get their fair share of the action. Moreover, this initiative will expose Bahraini companies to new technology trends to streamline and simplify tendering processes, become more efficient, and lead them to embrace technology as a way to move ahead.  This can be considered as the first practical step towards a major implementation of ICT infusion amongst the private sector within an e-Market place concept which is on the agenda of the Labour Fund's strategies. This project is part of adopting Government-to-Business scenario considering the fact that the largest purchasing power is within the government's boundaries."

Progress is about reaching the various players in the private sector in the fairest possible manner and no development is successful unless it is all-inclusive," he said, "Thus, e-Tendering is the way forward and this initiative of training companies will empower them to play a greater role in Bahrain's development."

"The e-Tendering process will be used to conduct all government tenders and purchase transactions undertaken by the authorities subject to the provisions of the Law Regulating government tenders and purchases, which are overseen by the Tender Board, and by including the private sector and companies more strongly, the Tender Board is making a case for increased participation and fairness", added Dr. Mirza. "It will enable the tendering process to be conducted via the internet. The system will automate the workflows of the tender preparation, tender opening, tender evaluation and tender awarding process. Approximately 2000 tenders are processed annually, opening a huge potentially lucrative market for companies in the private sector.

AlNadeem Technologies, which will be the training provider, is also the development agency behind the e-tendering process, hence companies will get expert training direct from the source, Dr. Mirza said.

The Training Provider will have the responsibility of ensuring that the selected candidate from each company is familiarised with using the system, and understand the process for submitting their tenders online smoothly without any difficulties or problems. It will be also responsible in testing the staff and certifying their ability to use the system with minimum errors. The training will be conducted at one or several authorised training centers in Bahrain.  

The condensed 8 hours training will involve minimum lecturing and most of it will revolve around actual use of the system screen and features. The material is designed based on the workflow of the system and will highly depend on screen capture from the e-Tendering system. 

The first batch of participating companies will be made up of 300 suppliers, based on their readiness with priority given to the most regular suppliers who have participated in the tendering process during this year and the past two years.

The training will be conducted in batches, each batch will have 12 to 15 trainees, where 5 batches will be trained per week and would take around three months to complete the whole 300.   

"The whole process makes Bahrain a leader in the implementation of advanced solutions' that improve productivity, and makes easier for businesses to transact with ministries and government Agencies," Dr. Mirza said.

-Ends-

About The Labour Fund:
The Kingdom of Bahrain has taken vital steps towards a labour market reform which is an essential stride to ensure that the human capital of the country is developed and that employment is made more attractive for localization as well as to improve performances of businesses.  The strive towards labour reform will impact the Kingdom's economy and raise standards of living as well as pose a challenging commitment to the improvement of services in Bahrain. 

The Labour Fund is a semi-autonomous yet independent authority which formulates strategic and operational plans to use the fees collected by the LMRA in order to enhance the overall prosperity of Bahrain by investing in Bahraini employability, job creation, and social support. Hence, the Labour Fund's main objectives are to support Bahrainis to become the employees of choice, and (ii) to support high quality private sector job creation and helping the private sector cope with the impact of labour market reform.

To achieve these objectives, the LF will invest in the cost and quality competitiveness of Bahrainis (e.g., reduction of cost of employing Bahrainis relative to expatriates, investment in skill and work ethic development programs of Bahrainis) and tackle employment barriers on both employer and labour market entrants sides through a combination of financial incentives and capability building, and (ii) in supporting the private sector's adjustment to new cost structures by providing access to capital to alleviate short-term cash constraints or improve productivity, and in know-how  initiatives that support improvements in productivity and decreased reliance on expatriate labour through spreading management and technical knowledge.

© Press Release 2008