E- procurement system: Ghana to save $100m

Ghana is set to save about $100 million in procurement costs following the launch of Africa’s first Electronic Government Procurement System (EGPS) by the Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia in Accra Tuesday.

The $5 million system, which was funded by the World Bank, is set to sanitise procurement practices in the country. An ebullient Dr Bawumia said that with the activation of the e-procurement system, “The pieces of the jigsaw in our drive towards digitization are adding up gradually and steadily.”

Tuesday’s launch is another feather in the cap of government as it will complement other works in the quest to digitise government processes and create a formalized economy, like the e-justice system which was launched last month, and other such projects like the e-immigration system which will soon be activated, the national identification system, the digital address system, the online application for passports and the integrated tax application preparation system, among others.

He was hopeful that the new system would reduce the instance of governmental corruption drastically, saying “when you look at some of the problems we have in this country, we usually talk about corruption, and when you talk about corruption, over 90% of it has to do with procurement. It’s really a procurement problem. That is where you’ll really find the corruption problem.”

The biggest enemy of corruption is transparency. If you can shine a light, usually corruption happens when people are not looking or when you cannot see, so transparent procurement becomes a very important tool in our fight against corruption.”

The vice president said that the new system would not only deal with corruption but also enhance coordination [among government agencies] and competition.

The foremost benefit of the system, he went on to say, would be to minimise the human interface in the procurement process all steps will now be automated, besides the convenience it would provide for service providers.

Other benefits he listed include anonymity of evaluation, ease of monitoring and audit, reduced fraudulent practices, increase in accuracy in reporting and statistics, increase in participating suppliers , increase in number of tender responses, timely delivery of material and reduction in the cost of goods and services due to the increased competition.

He revealed that about 660 procurement entities would be enrolled unto the new platform, with phase one seeing some 10 public entities which have high procurement numbers and were used as “test subjects” being fully enrolled unto the system.

He also stated that phase two of the project would begin in June, and that by the end of 2020, publicentities would be enrolled unto the platform.

He entreated all heads of state institutions to cooperate with the public procurement agency saying, “We are going to change how things are done so we need your cooperation.”

The Minister of Communication, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, in an interview with the media after the launch, explained that the system will “preclude the selection of a predetermined group of suppliers to participate in any bid. It also enforces compliance with existing laws, because it is linked with the Registrar General’s Department. All your details are in the system once you register, and it automatically pulls the information from the Registrar General’s - from your company registration - to complete the registration process.

She further explained that it would reduce the collusion involved in procurement, with one group of individuals forming several companies to essentially hijack the procurement process to bid for particular projects, “Because all your registration will be exposed and your bid will be disqualified.”

She also said that it will make it easy for digital electronic payment for these transactions, thereby limiting the human interface.

Mrs Owusu-Ekuful praised the transparency of the process as the bids are locked until final evaluation, besides the ease it would give individuals and civil society organisations what stage a bid is at any time.

One point she stressed one was the post-contract award system, which in the past had made room for unlimited variations to be made to an accepted bid. She said that with this new system, the most a successful bidder could vary their accepted bid by is 10% of the accepted bid value.

She expressed her gladness that this new system, with its checks, would save government money, year on year.