KAMPALA, April 4 (Xinhua) -- The Ugandan government will in July this year start piloting electronic procurement in 10 of its departments before rolling it out to all other departments early next year.
Florence Nakyeyune, manager Electronic Procurement at Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority (PPDAA), told Xinhua in an interview on Thursday that the move is intended to curb corruption and delays in public procurement processes.
Nakyeyune said electronic procurement will reduce human interaction thereby taking care of any intimidation from procurement officers.
It will also reduce the cost in the bidding process by having online submission instead of the physical submission of bidding documents, which involve travel expenses.
According to ministry of finance, the electronic government procurement system will cut procurement costs by 30 percent. Annual procurement budget accounts for 20 to 30 percent of the Gross Domestic Product.
The departments undergoing the pilot include PPDAA, National Information Technology Authority, Kampala Capital City Authority, and Uganda National Roads Authority.
