The deputy board chairman of Tanzania’s Public Procurement Regulatory Authority, Mr Thomas Mihayo, told the third East African Procurement Forum that it was important to implement the plan “as soon as possible”.
He was speaking during the closure of the event in Dar es Salaam at the weekend. “E-procurement will play a crucial role in improving efficiency and transparency as well as saving resources and time.”
He called on EAC partners to harmonise their procurement laws.
A lead financial management specialist at the World Bank, Mr Parminder Bar, said experience had shown that e-procurement could lead to an ability to withstand competition, reduce costs substantially and greatly improve transparency.
“I understand efforts are underway in the region to have pilot e-procurement, and they need to be expedited,” he said. “Amendments to procurement legislation should explicitly allow for e-procurement. Procurement regulations could then specify the details of e-signature among others.”
The deputy permanent secretary in the ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs (Public Financial Management Reforms), Dr Servacius Likwelile, said e-procurement was becoming a reality.
“We have tools in the region and therefore no need to re-invent the wheel,” he said.
However, some participants were concerned about the lack of a specific law to govern e-procurement in the region. Uganda’s Public Procurement and Disposal Authority executive director Edgar Agapa urged the region to use the e-governance framework and improve it.
“I think the best way we can go is by adopting the EAC e-government framework and improve it to suit e-procurement,” he said.
The deputy executive secretary in the Legal Reform Commission, Mr Adam Mambi, said legal frameworks in the region were made to suit procurement using paper-based methods.
“The laws do not give room on the use of e-procurement methods and thus lack the legal validity on e-procurement,” he said.
He also cited other issues which need to be given legal validity to make e-procurement possible. They include e-authentications, e-documents, e-payments, e-auctions, e-evidence, data protection and privacy and online dispute resolutions.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Alvar Mwakyusa
Quelle/Source: The Citizen, 06.10.2010
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