Procurement Unit

The Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) Region Procurement Unit (ELCRU) is part of the Global Governance Practice of the Bank which itself belongs to the Bank’s Prosperity Department. ELCRU is under the authority of an Accredited Procurement Manager (“APM”) for LAC who directly reports to the Prosperity Director for the LAC region, although its unit serves all sectors of the Bank in the region.

The mission of the procurement unit in LAC (also called “PROLAC”) is essentially two-fold: (i) supervising all procurement operations carried by Borrowers and their implementing agencies in the 33 client-countries of the region and (ii) help Borrowers in their effort to reform their public procurement systems to achieve better value for money. The unit helps also to the dissemination and promotion of the overall agenda of the Bank, supporting the Bank in its advancement of public goods and its fight against poverty and for a shared prosperity on a livable planet.

The ELCRU unit is highly decentralized with staff in all the 6 Country Management Units (CMUs) of the region. ELCRU staff is also present in Washington DC, with the front office of the Procurement Manager and most of the staff serving the Caribbean. With a total of 35 staff, the ELCRU unit supervises a portfolio of more than twenty-five (25) billions of dollars, ranging from infrastructure projects to vaccines.
The procurement team (i) works closely with clients to support the development of their public procurement systems and (ii) ensures that procurement under Bank-financed projects is conducted in accordance with loan agreements and fiduciary standards and obligations. For that purpose, the procurement team provides services to internal and external Clients and is responsible for procurement-related work concerning project preparation, implementation support and project supervision. The team is also responsible for providing procurement input to Economic and Sector Work analysis and diagnostics.

The Procurement specialist will be a member of the team that provides services to the CMU covering Brazil (LCC5), and to the various Global Practices which finance investment, development policy and Program-for-Results operations in Brazil.

The Procurement specialist will be working under the oversight and guidance of the World Bank’s Procurement Practice Manager (APM) for the Region, in close collaboration with the Procurement Coordinator for Brazil to whom the Practice Manager (APM) delegates coordination responsibilities for the CMU.

Scope of Work

• Provide technical fiduciary advice on procurement activities and engage in policy dialogue on procurement with client countries.