The Africa Region Harnesses Integrated e-Government Procurement (e-GP) Systems in Pursuit of Transparency and Integrity

The Africa Region Harnesses Integrated e-Government Procurement (e-GP) Systems
in Pursuit of Transparency and Integrity
by S.M. Quamrul Hasan,
Sr. Procurement Specialist, Solutions and Innovations in Procurement Governance Global Practice, World Bank

The World Bank's new Procurement Framework (PF) emphasizes the use of e-Government Procurement (e-GP) to achieve value for money with integrity in delivering sustainable development.

Some of the key focus areas of the 'Solutions and Innovations in Procurement' (SIP) department under the Governance Global Practice (GGP) include - e-GP, innovation, open contracting, performance measurement and data analysis. The SIP Africa Team has taken on a collaborative approach in supporting the countries in the region in the wider adoption of integrated e-Procurement systems. This ensures good governance in the procurement process and improves the government's ability to generate data and analyze its performance in the use of tax payers' money. This resonates with paragraph nine of the 2016 London Anticorruption Summit Communique, which emphasized that increased use of e-GP and open data in public contracting processes would strengthen transparency through collaboration between businesses and civil society.

Furthermore, two important areas to note are (i) the new PF has created an opportunity to consider a country's social and economic policies in procurement under World Bank funded operations and (ii) the Africa (AFR) region's 's focus on small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) for private sector growth and job creation. Public procurement and contracting is one of the major sources of private sector/SME growth and job creation. e-GP will provide more access for SMEs to participate in public procurement and thus help to increase their share of public contracts which are among the main drivers of revenue and growth. Tracking and monitoring will also help with data and analysis on SME participation in public contracts, which is a key development challenge across the African continent.

The SIP Africa team is committed to helping our clients make the most out of their transition to e-procurement. As part of that effort, our approach to support implementation of e-Procurement system encapsulates the following features:

• Collaboration with the champions in the client countries for designing e-procurement systems, more specifically, reengineering of the procurement business process, and defining the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
• Integration with other electronic systems like the Integrated Financial Management System (IFMIS), Vendors Registration System, etc
• Integration with Geo-Tagging system, which is a web-based tool for tracking projects' physical progress remotely, by allowing the implementing agencies/beneficiaries to capture, through smart phones, geo-tagged images of assets and facilities created under the project; i.e. smart project management
• Adoption of Open Contracting methodologies in the design of the e-Procurement systems, which will allow for transcending from the perspective of transparency to the concept of Open Government
• Visualization Interface for Stakeholders to track and monitor procurement and contract performance, including the SME access and growth in its share in the public sector procurement

The above-mentioned approach is also depicted in the following figure:



The Africa Region's first integrated e-Procurement system was launched in Zambia by President Edgar Chagwa Lungu on July 8, 2016. The system is currently being piloted in high spend ministries. The pilot will run for six months, and the roll-out is expected to begin around March 2017. The e-Procurement system in Rwanda is also being piloted in six procuring agencies and the roll-out of the system is expected to begin in April 2017. There is ongoing World Bank support in the region to e-Procurement initiatives in several countries including Botswana, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Mauritius, Ghana, Uganda, Nigeria, Cameroon, Madagascar, Kenya, Sudan, Swaziland, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The above figure shows the progression of e-Procurement adoption in the Region. Once implemented, the e-Procurement system will help create a chain of engagement and accountability between the Government, businesses and citizens. The system will enable good governance and inclusive growth in each of the countries by promoting increased disclosure and multi-stakeholder participation in public contracting

For more information, please contact S.M. Quamrul Hasan