E-government procurement system still has gaps- PPDA

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The commencement of the implementation of the e-government procurement process will take a little longer than anticipated with government saying the system still has gaps.

Benson Turamye, the Executive Director of Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority (PPDA), said on Thursday that the system, which was expected to start running on 1st August 2019, has only achieved 67% in terms of development.

This doesn’t give full confidence that it can be used. The authority is still not certain on when it will start working.

The e-government public procurement portal was supposed to start with ten government agencies, including Uganda Revenue Authority, PPDA, Kampala Capital City Authority, and Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) to pilot on the system and then be consequently widened to all others with time.

Turamye said the system has also not been integrated with key government agencies including Uganda Revenue Authority for tax issues and the budgeting process so that the procurement plan moves seamlessly.

The e-government procurement system is expected to cut paper clutter involved in the current governance processes. Also, it would reduce human contact that most of the times lead to payment of bribes to officials involved in the procurement process.

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