Mega projects missing in Govt's e-procurement portal

The Government’s e-procurement portal, which was launched to improve transparency and efficiency, is still being upgraded to accommodate costly large-scale international and national competitive bidding (ICB and NCB) projects.

It continues to attract only “shopping tenders” for books, trolley wheels, envelopes, and other such items.

The Finance Ministry has instructed all ministries, provincial councils, departments, district secretariats, state corporations, statutory boards, and state-owned enterprises to immediately implement the long-overdue electronic Government procurement (e-GP) system, in keeping with an IMF requirement to improve transparency.

But while the instructions state that procurement notices relating to all methods and categories with an estimated value of more than Rs 300 million must be published on the e-GP portal from May 1, 2023, the tenders uploaded continue to be for basic supplies, including stationery.

There have been at least four circulars since 2018 mandating the adoption of the e-GP system, including one requiring the appointment of liaison officers to collate and upload information. A 2019 circular even set out procedures such as registration of procurement entities, liaison officers and vendors, publication of annual procurement plans and procurement notices, etc. However, it has failed to be implemented.

The IMF has several times stressed the importance of transparent procurement procedures. But progress on this front has been “painfully slow”, official sources said.

E.A. Rathnaseela, Director General of the Department of Public Finance, said they expect at least a few selected entities, such as the Power and Energy Ministry and Defence Ministry, to start uploading their ICBs and NCBs by March next year.

“It takes time; it cannot be done overnight,” he said. “We plan a rollout to NCBs by March, but it will not be fully implemented across all entities. We completed the system requirement specifications (SRS) two weeks ago after holding many discussions. The developer is now working to accommodate the specific requirements of these entities.

Full implementation is expected to be completed by the end of 2024.

Some of the active tenders published on the e-procurement site, which is called promise.lk, are for the purchase of paint, water filters, revolving chairs and laptops.

The IMF has several times stressed the importance of transparent procurement procedures. But progress on this front has been “painfully slow"