… Neal explains high cost, unpacks implementation plan
MBABANE – The high estimated cost of the Electronic Government Procurement System should not be the biggest worry as the benefits will be more.
That is if the words of Minister of Finance Neal Rijkenberg are anything to go by.
In explaining the estimated cost, the minister shared that this is a project that will be implemented over a period of four years.
As a result, the minister said, there would be a budget allocation for each of the years.
He unpacked the whole implementation plan, saying it included analysis and business engineering, review of existing of legal framework, development of change management and communication strategy, plus information and technology requirements, which includes hardware and infrastructure architecture
In terms of the components of the system, the minister said they included registration and user management, e-bidding, e-contract and e-catalogue.
This publication sought to ascertain from the minister if there were any plans to regulate the upcoming system by means of a legislation to ensure legal certainty the project consisted of a legal and regulatory review component.
“The existing legal and regulatory framework will be analysed to ensure full support of the e-GP System. A procurement specialist will be engaged to ensure the proposed system is in accordance with the e-GP Strategy and compatible with international best practice,” the minister said.
It was brought to the attention of the minister that in some countries, there had been a concern that the e-procurement process may in fact increase collusion, where there were only a small number of contractors who can provide the desired product or service.
He was asked how government was going to handle such.
ENSURE
In response he said: “The purpose of the e-GP System is to ensure transparency and accountability in the procurement process. This means that all information that is; tender specification, bidding documents and contract awards, would be available on the online platform which will be accessible to the public.’’
Also, the minister said it was worth mentioning that the e-GP System was a new way of conducting public procurement and that government was not in any way automating the current manual system.
“That is reason why there will be a change management and communication strategy to manage the introduction of the new electronic procurement system,” he said.