Overview
The Procurement Associate will serve as the focal point for all procurement activities in the WFP Nepal Country Office, managing and coordinating the end-to-end procurement process for goods and services to support operational objectives and program delivery.
Tasks Summary
- Establish and maintain vendor lists, conduct periodic performance reviews, and provide orientation and support during bidding processes.
- Support to develop procurement plans and processes ensuring compliance with procurement policies and WFP standards.
- Guide requesting units in procurement planning and determine appropriate solicitation methods.
- Issue transport tenders, terms and conditions and conclude Agency Agreements for Overland Transportation.
- Support the logistics officer in monitoring all the shipments via Kolkata corridor.
- Manage tendering processes, prepare and finalize contracts, Long Term Agreement (LTAs), and purchase orders.
- Support Cash-Based Transfer implementation, including establishing and managing FSP contracts and assessing service quality.
- Participate in month Cash Working Group meeting.
- Ensure timely payments to suppliers and provide orientation to partners and service providers on WFP procurement systems and policies.
- Provide feedback to the Head of the Supply Chain in preparing the Letter of Understanding (LOU), Memorandum of Understanding (MOUs), Operational Agreement with the Line Ministries, Cooperating Partners (CPs) and Implementing Partners (IPs).
- Ensure timely procurement of food commodities.
- Support reallocation and diversion as per programme/pipeline requirement.
- Liaise monitor and follow up with suppliers, for timely delivery of food to the WFP projects.
- Supervise and guide junior procurement staff and advise requesting units on procurement policies and best practices.
- In coordination with the FSQ (Food Safety and Quality) Officer, coordinate procurement activities to enable food quality assurance processes.
- In coordination with logistics staff assist in the coordination of customs clearance, VAT reimbursement, tax duties exemption and completion of import documentation.
- Contribute to ensure full compliance with WFP procurement audit requirements by maintaining accurate documentation and organized filing systems.
- Coordinate with HQ/Global HQ, and SMART sourcing category managers to facilitate international and regional procurement of food and non-food items and related services.
- Carry out other related tasks as required.
Experience Requirements
- At least six years of experience in public procurement of Food, Transport, Goods and Other Services.
- Knowledge of custom clearance process desirable
- Demonstrated familiarity with locally purchased commodities/goods/services.
- Additional experience in finance/budget management, audit, logistics is desirable.
- Demonstrated experience with local procurement of food commodities, engineering, transport, finance and other services.
- Demonstrated knowledge of procurement processes and linkages with other operations (e.g. food/nutrition programme, engineering, logistics)
- Experience conducting supplier market research and coordinating with retailers, wholesalers and traders.
- Experience with UN or public procurement processes is desired.
Qualification Requirements
- Completion of secondary school education. with a post-secondary certificate in the related functional area.
- Preferably a first university (bachelor) degree in the related field.
