The government launched a tender information site, contratos.gov, in 2003, which has seen a leap in monthly visitors from an initial 5,000 to an average of 34,750 in March 2005. Uribe expects the number of visitors to the site to triple to over 100,000 per month by year-end, by which time the number of public entities registered with the site will be double, at 250.
More than 1,500 suppliers can consult details of auctions for public contracts worth some 30bn pesos (US$12.9mn) per year.
However, the site is just the first stage of a "roadmap" toward the launch of a true e-procurement system, Uribe said.
"This [the current site] is an exercise in informing the public. The government wants to obtain transparency, a single easy-to-use site for all state entities. It can be used by regulatory bodies and it is possible to see statistics and analyses of who are the suppliers to the state, what is the state buying most of, when and how."
"All of this will make the process of contracting much more efficient and transparent," Uribe said.
In designing the site the government looked at models in Brazil, Mexico and Australia. The portal is built on an Oracle platform.
THE REST OF LATIN AMERICA
Colombia has made considerable advances in e-government but is still only at a medium level in the region.
The recently published Economist Intelligence Unit's (EIU) 2005 report on governments' e-readiness placed Colombia at 48th in the world, down from 41st in 2004.
Chile was the most advanced country in Latin America at 31st followed by Mexico (36) Brazil (38) and Argentina (39).
The report said the digital divide in Latin America was accentuated by inequality of income, lack of infrastructure as well as incipient technological know how.
However, there is a strong, general drive toward e-government in the region, according to Eric Brenner, Oracle Latin America's industry sector VP.
According to Brenner, e-government projects are the company's regional top priority and account for 28% of Oracle's regional revenue.
"There is a strong movement in the region. In some cases they are at the initial stages, others at planning stages and others at a more advanced level," Brenner told BNamericas.
According to Brenner the two main trends in e-government in the region are informative websites designed to increase transparency and online tax payment sites, the latter being the most important.
Chile has the most advanced online tax site, says Brenner, while Mexico and Guatemala are making big investments. Costa Rica is preparing an auction to implement such a site just as Colombia is, and Ecuador is looking at the model.
According to Brenner, Oracle implements the platform and each country adapts it to its needs. However, with constant contact through its distributors the company continually modernizes the platforms.
"In the software industry a large part of income comes from upselling. If one doesn't generate value through business relations, the possibility of upselling is minimal," Brenner said.
Autor: Patrick Nixon
Quelle: Business News Americas, 20.05.2005
