In a move aimed at increasing transparency and accountability, the Kingdom of Eswatini’s Ministry of Finance, in collaboration with the Government of Rwanda, on November 2 presented Financial Management Systems (IFIMIS) and e-government procurement projects to its stakeholders within the government.

As announced through the official Twitter account of the Government of the Kingdom of Eswatini, this follows the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Rwanda to borrow Rwanda’s best practices in the area of digitalization of all systems, including public finance management, e-Governance, e-Procurement, and others.

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The Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Sizakele Dlamini, said: "The scourge of fraud and corruption in public procurement needs to be addressed and one way is the introduction of the E-Government Procurement System (e-GP). The e-Government Procurement System will increase transparency and accountability."

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Dlamini said that it will reduce the procurement lead time from 100 days to 57 days and improve transparency because the tender documents and contracts will be disclosed publicly.

According to Rosine Urujeni, the Chief Operations Officer of Rwanda Cooperation Initiative, Rwanda believes in the significance of cooperation in achieving remarkable progress.

"We have personally witnessed the transformative power of such initiatives including the Integrated Financial Management Systems (IFIMIS), and the e-Government Procurement System,” Urujeni said.

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In 2017, Rwanda adopted the Umucyo e-Procurement System, a portal through which bidders submit their proposals and quotations, reducing physical interaction between them and procurement officials. The application process is paperless as bidders submit their proposals and quotations through online portals, reducing physical interaction between them and procurement officials.

Until 2021, according to statistics by the Rwanda Public Procurement Authority (RPPA), 19,850 tenders were published, about 85,000 bids were processed, and 16,976 contracts were awarded to competent bidders through the portal.

A total of 210 procuring entities used the system.