Government Procurement Agreement Knowledge Series

Anastasia Citra has worked for the Indonesia Government for nearly 13 years, starting her career in the Indonesia's National Public Procurement Agency (LKPP) as a policy maker in the field of general and specific procurement. She was one of the delegates from Indonesia to the Working Group on Government Procurement at the 9th round of I-EU CEPA Negotiations in December 2019 in Brussels. She wrote a journal article entitled “The Effect of E Procurement Policy on Corruption in Government Procurement Evidence from Indonesia”. She was also involved in the preparation of competency standards for procurement personnel. In February 2022, she joined the Bureau of Human and General Affairs, Ombudsman of Indonesia, as Head of Procurement.

Mr. Constantine Miltchev Palicarsky is Regional Adviser (anti-corruption and asset recovery) for the Western Balkans and Head of the UNODC Programme Office in Belgrade.

A lawyer with more than 25 years of experience, Mr. Palicarsky is a part of a team, based in both Vienna and in the field, that is responsible for providing technical assistance to States parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption for the more effective implementation of the Convention.

Mr Avag Avanesyan is the Deputy Minister of Finance of the Republic of Armenia from 2021 overseeing the areas of public procurement policy and fiscal risk policy. Before joining the Ministry of Finance, Mr Avanesyan was the Deputy Minister of Economy of Armenia acting as the main focal point when preparing the EBRD, the WB and the ADB country partnership strategies as well as coordinating the UNCTAD investment policy review of Armenia in 2019. Mr Avanesyan has a PhD in Economics.

Jelen Jovetić has been at the leading position in the public procurement policy field of the country since 2019, and is the Head of the EU accession negotiation team for Chapter 5 - Public Procurement.  She began her work engagement within the Ministry of Finance in 2007, where she held various roles related to coordination and participation in numerous reform activities aimed at creating a favourable business environment in the country and efficiency of public sector.

After excelling at the Faculty of Economics in Podgorica, she continued her professional and academic development and education at Harvard Kennedy School, Cambridge, MA, United States of America; Vienna University of Economics and Business, WU Executive Academy, Vienna, Austria; Joint Vienna Institute, Vienna; Austria; Duisenberg School of Finance, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Ms Jovetić also performed a function of Director General of the Directorate for Investment and Development Projects within the Ministry of Finance, and was a member of the Council of the Montenegrin Investment Agency. She coordinated drafting of the Law on Public-Private Partnership, as well as other system regulations, primarily in areas of public procurement, investment policy and financial system.  She has been a member of steering and supervisory boards of several organizations within the country, maintains cooperation with relevant international partners and keeps developing as an expert in mentioned fields. 

Aleksandar Argirovski is State Advisor in the Public Procurement Bureau within the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of North Macedonia. He has been with the Public Procurement Bureau since it was established in 2005. Since then, public procurement is constantly in his professional focus. His career as a civil servant has continuously advanced starting as a Junior Officer in 2002, Associate in 2004, Adviser in 2005, Assistant Head of Department in 2007, reaching the title of State Adviser in 2013. In the period 2015-2017 he was acting director of the Bureau. He has been involved in all activities of the Public Procurement Bureau throughout the years, especially its normative affairs, the establishment of the training program and the coordination of the international relations.

As regards the international activities of the Public Procurement Bureau, he has represented the Republic of North Macedonia at the meetings of the EU Public Procurement Expert Group at number of occasions, at the meetings of the Subcommittee for Internal Market and Competition with the EC for Chapter 5 — Public Procurement, he has coordinated IPA-related activities, SIGMA assistance, World Bank, SIGMA and EBRD assessment missions, as well as many other activities at regional and EU level. Since 2017, he is the lead negotiator of the Republic of North Macedonia in its GPA accession negotiations.

He is the author and co-author of number of professional books in the field of public procurement. He holds Master's Degree in economics and his master thesis was “The Effect of Public Procurement to International Trade”. He is fluent in English.

Joanne has worked for the UK Government for nearly 15 years, starting her career in the Department of Trade and Industry (as it was) and covering a variety of roles in domestic and international policy. She joined the Department for International Trade in January 2017 shortly after its inception, where she led the UK's accession to the WTO Government Procurement Agreement and now oversees the full suite of the UK's trade commitments in relation to procurement

Simon Reid until recently led Australia's engagement in the WTO GPA Committee, and was a member of Australia's GPA accession negotiating team. From 2005 until now, he has held a variety of roles in the Australian Government both at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Department of Finance related to negotiating and implementing international government procurement commitments. Currently Mr Reid works in a trade and economic role at the Australian Embassy in the Philippines.
Mr Reid has worked extensively with Australia's state and territory governments, as well as a wide range of stakeholders, in promoting the value of open government procurement markets. Mr Reid also led on government procurement negotiations in Australia's bilateral free trade agreement negotiations with Hong Kong, the European Union and the United Kingdom.

Liesbeth Casier is a Senior Policy Advisor with the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD)'s Economic Law and Policy Program. She works with the Public Procurement and Infrastructure Finance team on research and advisory services that involve innovation in public procurement. She also works on IISD's Sustainable Asset Valuation. She has advised governments in Bhutan, Canada, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, India, Morocco, Paraguay, Senegal, South Africa and the Netherlands.

Ms Casier also works extensively with the European Commission, the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on policy frameworks and the business case for sustainable infrastructure. She represents IISD at the OECD Working Group on Leading Practitioners on Public Procurement. She previously worked with UN Environment and a consulting business.

Ms Casier holds master's degrees in development studies, business economics and political science, and bachelor's degrees of political science and laws.

Sandra G. Hamilton is a thought leader, strategic adviser, and Ph.D. researcher at the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research (@MIOIR). Working at the intersection of business, government, and society her research investigates the changing role and responsibility of governments to leverage procurement to improve lives and move markets toward the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals. To address the 21st Century Grand Challenges of poverty, inequality, and climate change, Hamilton sees the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) as a potentially powerful, yet currently under-utilized, driver of positive societal change. 

Ms Hamilton is a UK/Canadian citizen, Canada's first Social MBA, and designer of Canada’s first municipal Social Procurement Frameworks. In 2017, she presented her work on ‘The Importance of People, in a People, Planet, Profit approach to Sustainability’ at the WTO Symposium on Sustainable Government Procurement in Geneva.

Jean Heilman Grier is the Trade Principal with Djaghe, LLC., a consulting firm. She has extensive experience in international trade as a U.S. trade negotiator, lawyer, adviser and consultant. She served as the Senior Procurement Negotiator at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), where she was the U.S. negotiator for the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement and other agreements. Prior to joining USTR, Ms. Grier served as Senior Counsel for Trade Agreements at the U.S. Department of Commerce and as Assistant Attorney General with the State of Minnesota. She received law degrees from the University of Minnesota (J.D.) and the University of Washington (LL.M) and an undergraduate degree from South Dakota State University. As a Fulbright Scholar at Tohoku University in Japan, she conducted research on Japanese administrative law. Ms. Grier is the author of numerous publications and maintains a blog.

Ryohei Tobibayashi is the Deputy Director for the International Trade Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. In this capacity, he coordinates the positions of the Government of Japan for many of the subsidiary Committees of the Council for Trade in Goods and represents Japan’s delegation in the Committee on Government Procurement of the WTO. Mr. Tobibayashi previously served as trade officer for the Mission of Japan to the European Union from 2017 to 2020, engaged in the conclusion of the Japan-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), and followed the EU’s trade policy including the BREXIT negotiations. After joining the Foreign Ministry, he also served for the European Affairs Bureau, the Embassy in Romania, the International Cooperation Bureau and the Embassy in Afghanistan. He holds Bachelor of Law Degree from the University of Tsukuba.

Caroline is a lawyer with the International Trade Law Division of the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs (the Secretariat of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL). She serves as the Secretary to the UNCITRAL Working Group on Procurement, which adopted the UNCITRAL 2011 Model Law on Public Procurement. A member of the Editorial Board of the Public Procurement Law Review and regular contributor to it and to other journals, and regular presenter at international procurement conferences, she is bringing the work of UNCITRAL in modernizing procurement to a wide audience.  She works with the main international players in procurement and procurement reform (such as the WTO, The World Bank and multilateral development banks such as the ADB, IDB, the OECD, IDLO, and regional trade organizations such as COMESA) to promote harmonization in procurement rules and to support international trade and development.

Prior to joining UNCITRAL, advised on claims of the Kuwaiti Government arising from Iraq's 1990 invasion and occupation of Kuwait at the United Nations Compensation Commission, and worked as an internal fraud investigator in the United Nations. She practised in the private sector in the City of London and in Hong Kong, specializing in banking and insolvency litigation.

Dr Dorina Harcenco has a professional experience of over 18 years, as an Associate Professor, the main taught courses being International Trade and Trade Policies and Economic Integration. She also has experience working in the Ministry of Economy of Moldova, as well as in different research projects as a researcher-coordinator.

Starting with 2013, Dorina works for the EBRD as a regulatory and policy expert in Moldova, Tajikistan, Kyrgyz Republic and North Macedonia following the work at the UNDP as a national consultant for Moldova GPA accession. In July 2016 Moldova has officially joined WTO GPA. The main focus of the ongoing projects is the reform of Public Procurement Sector of Republic of Moldova in the post GPA accession context and in Tajikistan, Kyrgyz Republic and North Macedonia — assisting it in the WTO GPA accession process.

Susan Brown-Shafii is a graduate of the Rotterdam School of Management (MBA) and the London School of Economics’ PhD program in International Studies who has spent her career working in roles involving complex public policy analysis, cross-sector coordination and strategic liaison. She has particular expertise in the comparative politics of public policy, sustainability and “whole of government” reforms, notably in the context of public procurement policies and practice.

At present, Susan is working as a Geneva-based consultant and is a member of the learning team for a London School of Economics (LSE) on-line course on Public Policy.  The students in this course are predominantly experienced public policy practitioners.  From 2005-13, she was the Scientific Coordinator for the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research on Coherence in Trade Regulation, based at the University of Bern’s World Trade Institute.  Employers have additionally included: LSE Enterprise and the Australian Government’s Investing in Women; the ILO, UNCTAD and GATT/WTO Secretariats, as well as; Hagen Resources International, a capacity building and government relations consultancy, owned by a former ILO Deputy Director General (conducting research for a 3-year US National Academy of Science project to develop indicators for monitoring compliance with international labor standards, an early project seeking to harness big data for governance purposes).  Her PhD dissertation focused on the WTO’s Government Procurement Agreement; she has subsequently taught and published in this policy context.

At the outset of her career, Susan worked in the private sector, principally as a customs and trade consultant in Auckland, New Zealand.

Steven L. Schooner is the Nash & Cibinic Professor of Government Procurement Law at the George Washington University Law School, in Washington DC. Before joining the faculty, he served in the US Office of Federal Procurement Policy, as a litigator in the US Department of Justice, as an attorney at a large private law firm, and as an Active Duty Army Judge Advocate (serving as a Commissioner at the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals). He is a Fellow of the National Contract Management Association, a recipient of NCMA’s Charles A. Dana Distinguished Service Award, a Director on the Procurement Round Table, and author or co-author of numerous publications including The Government Contracts Reference Book: A Comprehensive Guide To The Language of Procurement (now in its fifth edition).

Yu Ling Mah is the Director of ICT Procurement in Government Technology Agency (GovTech), Singapore. She leads a GovTech team to establish demand aggregation and drive innovations in ICT procurement for the whole of government or WOG, working with ICT industry and government agencies in Singapore. Prior to her current role, she led various WOG implementation for infrastructure, shared services and cloud. She had held service delivery, business development and client management roles in the private sectors.

Wayne Liko is the Managing Partner of Horizant. With 30 years in the Real Property and Facilities Management technology industry, Wayne oversees Horizant’s team of data and technology geeks. Headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, Horizant’s North American client base covers a broad spectrum including success in Federal, Provincial/State and Local Governments.

Carlos is an entrepreneur and a researcher (over 60 peer-reviewed papers, H-index = 16). His main research interest is the study of how technology can innovate the provision of health and social care, with specific focus on the rehabilitation care pathways. With the desire of increasing the impact of the research work on clinical practices in 2015 Carlos co-founded Tech4Care srl., an R&D company working on digital technologies and health. Since Carlos was appointed Chairman in 2017 Tech4Care experienced a considerable growth, reaching a turnover of about € 1.5 million/year and 18 employees.

Karen is responsible for New Zealand's international commitments and engagements relating to government procurement. This includes leading on New Zealand's participation in the World Trade Organisation Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA), supporting the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade with the negotiation of government procurement commitments in free trade agreements and cooperation activities, and ensuring that New Zealand's government procurement and practice continues to be strongly aligned with internationally recognised best practice.

Dr. Oksana Kamianetska is currently occupying a position of Head of International Activities at the Public Procurement Department of the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine.

Ms. Kamianetska is responsible for advancing, approximating and promoting the Ukrainian Government procurement policy globally, including at the WTO GPA. Her duties also include monitoring and supporting the implementation of Ukraine`s obligations under the Association Agreement with the European Union and facilitating cooperation with international stakeholders, such as the European Commission, OECD, EBRD, SIGMA, World Bank, etc.

Mr. Hsiang-Yu Chen, Section Chief of the Department of Planning, the Public Construction Commission of the Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu (Chinese Taipei), is a senior expert in government procurement policies and the implementation of the GPA in Chinese Taipei. He was a member of the delegation of Chinese Taipei in the GPA renegotiations and often leads his delegation in participating in activities of the WTO Committee on Government Procurement. He holds master's degrees in civil engineering and in laws program for executives.