The Public Procurement and Property Authority (PPPA) urges suppliers to take haste measures with regards to signing on to the electronic government procurement (eGP) platform in order for them not to be locked out of the system when all public offices are added to the procurement system in the coming budget year.
Currently, 74 public offices have taken part in the modern procurement system to which the PPPA target to add the remaining offices in the 2023/24 budget year.
Haji Ibsa, Director General of PPPA, said that because of the partial implementation of eGP, suppliers didn’t take appropriate measures to fully register on the system.
“The lag was evident since suppliers were able to be involved on the procurement of other public offices, which are not part of the electronic procurement. At the moment, one public office can procure through eGP while the others, who are not part of the scheme, are procuring through the manual traditional means giving room for laxity of suppliers to join the system,” he said.
“But when we include the remaining offices there will be no chance for traditional procurement. So we urge the supplier to join the platform if they want to continue providing their services,” the Director General added.
Currently about 8,000 suppliers are registered through the eGP portal; however, there are about 30,000 suppliers.
“So far we have less than 50 percent of suppliers registered on the eGP but when the remaining public offices get on board, suppliers will be forced to register on the new system,” Ibsa elaborated.
The new system is stated as a modern scheme for public procurement and will carry out its works swiftly with ample competition and lack of misdemeanor.
The scheme was originally introduced as a pilot about two years ago courtesy of nine public offices.
This budget year, the PPPA has rolled out the eGP to 74 public offices and so far over 1080 tenders and purchases have been published on the locally developed portal.
According to the plan, by the end of the budget year, about 490 billion birr worth of procurement will be undertaken through the eGP.
In the coming budget year, the public offices that will conduct their procurement procedures through eGP are said to be about 169.
