Timely, efficient, and effective procurement of goods and services and Quality Assurance for Letters of Agreement in compliance with the relevant FAO Rules and Regulations for emergency response in food crisis contexts.

Tasks and responsibilities

•    Review and analyze procurement requests for completeness and conformity with established FAO rules, procedures and practice; liaise with the requesters, as necessary, and recommend to supervisor appropriate procurement strategy/approach, based on careful analysis of risks and identifying sound mitigation measures, to best serve institutional interests including requests from decentralized offices to undertake procurement locally.
•    Perform operational functions relating to the procurement process including, but not limited to, preparation of documents in GRMS and other office applications related to assigned procurement actions, issuance of tenders and purchase orders, evaluation of bids, follow-up with suppliers including follow-up on orders to ensure timely delivery, etc.
•    Make recommendation of awards for the assigned procurement activities; where applicable prepare submissions for relevant procurement committee review presenting the submission if needed. Prepare full set of sound contractual instruments required and manage their correct execution until their final closure after correct application of payment and other relevant contractual terms. Timely alert the team leader / officer on possible contractual disputes making proposals for possible amicable settlements for avoiding arbitration.
•    Provide general guidance and technical advice as required to requesters and local technical experts in the country office on procurement matters and on the implementation of procurement strategies and processes in conformity with the relevant rules, procedures, and practices.
•    Offer support, if and as required, to requesters in the office responsible to prepare sound procurement plans. Maintain regular and open communication with requesters in the office, updating regularly on the status of advancement of procurement activities required, challenges arising during tendering or contract management.
•    Supervise and ensure adequate leadership required by the members of the Local Procurement Unit (LPU), preparing performances plans and related timely and objective assessment when time comes. Ensure that the LPU has sufficient resources to undertake efficiently procurement actions required in the offices, preparing RACI analysis aimed to objectively identify possible conflict of interests, gaps for the Procurement Authority to assess, together with Improvement Action Plans for the LPU with SMART objectives and TORs for new procurement staff to hire.
•    Prepare sound requests for ad-hoc re-delegation of authority on behalf of the Procurement Authority in the country office and present, if required, submission form prepared by the office to the HQPC meetings.
•    When requested, provide advice and guidance to colleagues on the use of the Oracle Procurement Module and other IT applications, including e-tendering tools, utilized in the Procurement Service.
•    When requested, participate in procurement mission to sub-offices in the country, providing support and training to staff working in these offices as necessary.
•    When requested, participate in procurement missions to other field offices, providing support, guidance, training and mentoring to staff working in these offices as necessary and preparing office procurement function status/performance analysis, improvement action plans, TORs, etc.
•    Perform other related duties as required.
CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

•    Experience in procurement related activities;

FAO Core Competencies

•    Results Focus
•    Teamwork
•    Communication
•    Building Effective Relationships
•    Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement

Technical/Functional Skills

•    Demonstrated knowledge of internationally recognized procurement standards and international procurement techniques and operations used in contracting for goods and services;
•    Extent and relevance of experience in public sector procurement dealing with contractual issues;
•    Extent and relevance of experience in identifying clients’ procurement-related needs and in providing support and guidance from clients’ point of view;
•    Experience in logistics operations is an asset desirable;
•    Knowledge of procurement-related IT tools and systems (i.e. enterprise resource planning (ERP) and especially ,
•    Procurement module, UNGM and e-tendering solutions, such as Intend, database management applications, etc.) is desirable.
•    Work experience in more than one location or area of work, particularly in field positions is desirable;
•    Experience in humanitarian contexts is desirable.