The Role Of Electronic Government Procurement In Fighting Corruption And Overcoming The Pandemic Challenges

Despite some registered achievements through the different reforms in public procurement, Government of Uganda (GoU) still has challenges with value for money and delivering quality service due to inefficiencies in the Procurement Processes. These challenges include;

• Procurement delays that have a significant impact on budget absorption by the Ministries, Departments and Agencies.
• Procuring outside the procurement plan hence over committing Government and creating an imbalance between budget and expenditure.
• Ineffective and inefficiencies in contract management
• Low levels of compliance with procurement laws & regulations.
• Poor Procurement Records Management: due to the poor storage of documents
• Centralized reference point for Suspension of providers due to fraudulent practices, misrepresentation and breach of contractual obligation
• low bidder participation

Whilst all the prevalent challenges, the Government of Uganda is continuously endeavoring to create greater improvements & value addition to public procurement through;

1. Improved transparency of the public procurement process
2. Improved governance and accountability for public funds
3. Improved budget absorption of Government and Development partner funds
4. Reduced bidding costs.
5. Timely Payments for goods, services and works.
6. Timely and equal accessibility to tender information
7. Obtaining real time feedback on tendering process
8. Promote bidder participation and competitiveness in public procurement.
9. Improved public procurement efficiency
10. Centralized record keeping enabling improved decision-making.

In a bid to achieve the above key performance indicators within the public procurement process, GoU decided to automate the public procurement function. A contract was signed with the best evaluated bidder (BEB) on 29th December 2017 and the system implementation commenced in January 2018. The system was however deployed into production for piloting in six entities on 1st July 2020. The entities included;

• Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development
• Ministry of Water and Environment
• Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority
• Kampala Capital City Authority
• Mpigi District Local Government
• Jinja District Local Government

During the implementation a number of challenges were faced with the vendor. Given the sustainability risk associated with the challenges that were being faced, Government of Uganda though the Innovation Fund in the Ministry of ICT& National Guidance, developed a home-grown

solution while leveraging on the capacity of the teams that was achieved during the three-year implementation with the provider of the system that was being piloted. GoU subsequently terminated the contract of the first vendor and focused all energy on perfecting the home-grown solution. This system was deployed into production for proof of concept on 17th August 2020 and was piloted in 5 entities.

The GoU solution was piloted in five entities namely;

• The National Information Technology Authority- Uganda
• Uganda Civil Aviation Authority
• Uganda Institute of ICT
• National Social Security Fund
• Ministry of ICT and National Guidance

The pilot stage of the system has helped to improve the system which has led to GoU’s decision to roll back the six entities that were piloting on the solution that was deployed on 1st July,2020 to the GoU solution. This rollback phase is currently underway and should be completed by end of June 2021.

During the pilot stage of the GoU solution a number of achievements have been realized and these include;

• The pilot entities have been able to publish procurement plans, initiate   requisitions, solicit, bid, evaluate and contract on the system.
• Provider registration is being done on the system.
• Security enforcement on the system has been carried out and is an ongoing concern.
• Completed end user training for procurement practitioners in all pilot entities, bidders, PDEs as well as well as various professional associations like IPPU and CIPS
• Developed comprehensive campaign content to aid in awareness creation.
• Documentation of quick reference guides and audio tutorial materials for self-training by the system users
• Attachment of staff within the Project Management Unit to each of the piloting entities to fast-track user support for better user experience.
• Setup of a service desk tool that is being used to log system issues raised by the users and subsequent follow up on the resolution by the project management unit.

Have monthly meetings with the Heads of PDU of the piloting entities to discuss system adoption and provide solutions to the challenges faced GoU has taken the decision to roll out the home-grown solution. The roll out is expected to begin in the next financial year FY 2021/2022 over the next three years for 360 PDEs. A campaign to also register all the prequalified providers of the piloting entities before the end of this calendar year is underway. The project management unit is working closely with the PDUs of the piloting entities to deliver on this activity. Within the first seven years of using the GoU solution, government expects to achieve tremendous improvement in the public procurement process as summarized below.