Procurement Assistant at Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries

VACANCY NO: 9/2021

The Procurement Assistant will be part of the procurement team working on the implementation of the project's activities. He/she would be responsible for supporting
the procurement activities needed for project implementation. The workstation will be at PMCU Nakuru but he/she will travel extensively within the Project area, as may be
required. He/she will sign a six (6) year Contract of Employment with the initial six months on probation. The contract will remain in force but renewable annually based on satisfactory annual performance. He/she will be answerable to the Procurement Specialist for the following duties and responsibilities:

1. Consolidate requests for procurement of goods, works, technical and consulting services;
2. Design, implement a database of service providers and ensure the update;
3. Prepare tender notices and advertisements in appropriate national and international papers and websites as required;
4. Preparing procurement documents (e.g., invitations to bid, standard bidding documents, bid clarification and eventual amendments, bid evaluation reports, etc.); obtain timely relevant approval for procurement documents;
5. Organizing and managing pre-bid conferences; conduct the bid opening process and prepare the minutes of bid opening; in due time for bidevaluations, support evaluation committees; ensure proper documentation of committees’ deliberations and findings;
6. Ensure timely notification of results of tenders to all successful and unsuccessful bidders;
7. Tracking the progress of procurement activities against the plans; highlight variations in progress, record reasons and identify remedial actions; report this to the Procurement Specialist and Project Coordinator monthly;
8. Drafting contracts for signature by Accounting Officer and Vendors;
9. Compiling and confidentially keeping up-to-date procurement files containing high quality and readily available information, ensuring proper documentation, transparency and ease of reference;
10. Handle procurement-related correspondences with pertinent authorities;
11. Keeping an effective system for monitoring of procurement process and contract (recording the dates of all important approvals, contract awards, amounts etc.), as well as an adequate system record-keeping system to ensure the quick finding of procurement information;
12. Maintain the contract register and regularly update the same with monitoring data on the progress of all contracts;
13. Maintain regular communication with Procurement Specialist to ensure that procurement tracking information is well coordinated with other project planning, project budgeting and other projects financial reporting information
14. Monitoring the administrative implementation of contracts;
15. Any other official duty as may be assigned by the Procurement Specialist and the Project Coordinator.

Academic qualifications and other requirements for the Position:

Minimum Requirements:

1. Bachelor’s degree in procurement or supply chain management or business administration or any other relevant field;
2. Must have advanced diploma in procurement and supply management, and should be a member of a professional body in procurement and supply management
3. Minimum five (5) years relevant working experience, of which (3) years experience is in procurement management at Government/donor-funded projects;
4. Must meet the requirements of chapter six (6) of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010

Other Requirements:

1. Comprehensive knowledge of the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act 2015 and the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Regulations 2020.
2. Familiarity with the IFAD Procurement Guidelines will be an added advantage;
3. Computer literacy and competence, Microsoft Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint;
4. Ability to work under pressure and meet strict deadlines and work with minimum supervision;
5. Ability to work and interact with people from diverse, professional, social and cultural backgrounds;
6. Good interpersonal and communication skills, excellent planning, organizing and recordkeeping skills;
7. Ability to work as a team player, self-motivated and creative thinker, good analytical skills and report writing, excellent coordination and negotiation skills;
8. Fluent in English (written and spoken);