Grab that bid online

A man browses the Internet. Starting July 1, Ugandans will pay a fee to use social media. FILE PHOTO.

What you need to know:

Paper procurement will soon be a thing of the past once bidders start bidding online as entities issue their bidding documents digitally, Sarah Aanyu writes.

Internet has simplified just about everything including bidding. With the new electronic government procurement system (EGPS), government hopes to ride on information and communication technology (ICT) to increase the number of bids on tenders to between three and five per day.

Paper procurement will soon be a thing of the past once bidders start bidding online while entities issue their bidding documents online. This will be a web-based system that will support the full public procurement lifecycle.

How it will work
It will replace the current manual process of procurement used within public institutions (ministries, departments, agencies and local governments).
This means that public institutions will have to conduct all their procurement using this on-line system right from posting of bid notices, to uploading bid/tender documents and finally making payments to suppliers.

Similarly, the private sector (for example suppliers / bidders) will also be required to post their responses through this online system.
Jackson Oteu, a procurement officer at Proper Skills Management Bweyogerere, says e-procurement encourages accountability.

Benefits
“E-procurement makes the bidding processes transparent,especially when it comes to awarding bids. This eliminates cases of conflicting loyalty that may delay the process or even tempt the suppliers to lobby,” says Oteu.
However, Dorothy Nabatanzi, a procurement officer at Rota Tech, says for transparency, all information should be uploaded on the websites and made easily accessible by whoever needs it.