PPADB launches electronic bidding
Pauline Dikuelo | Wednesday July 6, 2016 18:00
Known as Integrated Procurement of Management System (IPMS), the system eliminates the need for bidders to visit PPADB offices and is therefore expected to improve efficiency in contractor registration and public procurement and asset disposal.
E-bidding is the second phase of the IPMS, which was first introduced three years ago when PPADB launched online contractor registration and procurement planning.
Speaking at the launch this week, PPADB executive chairperson, Bridget John said the IPMS was developed to assist in automating PPADB services.
“In our quest to deliver on our mandate, the board identified a need for an IPMS which is a web- based system that has been developed to assist the board in automating its services to efficiently manage contractor registration and public procurement and asset disposal,” she said. John said this is in line with the broad objective of driving efficiency, enhancing transparency and customer service as per their strategic plans adding that their value proposition is to keep tenders clean.
“IPMS will also enable the board to provide a platform where procuring entities and the bidding community can access PPADB services outside the confines of the brick and mortar PPADB offices,” she said.
Other modules, which are capacity building and asset disposal, will facilitate the ease of managing asset disposal and training of various stakeholders to achieve the desired procurement and asset disposal outcomes. According to John, in developing the IPMS, they ensured that the principles of public procurement of competition, transparency, value for money and public confidence are taken into consideration in the design of the system. Giving an overview of the IPMS, PPADB ICT manager, Oteng Raesima said that they have learnt from the IPMS’s first phase and are prepared to bridge any gaps and ensure that this one does not create barriers to procurement.
“We realised that switching over from manual to online is too drastic for most of the contractors who could not utilise online registration due to computer illiteracy, Internet accessibility, as well as bandwidth issues,” he said.
He said to address the issues, they have availed service desks, resource centres, training rooms that are dedicated to contractors at their offices in Francistown and Gaborone. For his part, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, Solomon Sekwakwa said the system will relieve congestion in the Gaborone office and the inconvenience that clients suffered from travelling long distances to access PPADB offices.
A pilot of the electronic biddings was embarked on with a few selected tenders issued online to test the functionality of the system.
“So far three tenders have been successfully awarded through the system. Some of the pilot tenders were non-responsive for various reasons which have been addressed,” said Sekwakwa.