20 train in e-Procurement

20 people Friday completed training in Electronic Procurement (e-Procurement) organized by the World Bank.The 7-week training attracted participants from four countries that included Ghana, Armenia, Georgia and hosts Rwanda. Samia M. Melhem, Senior Operations Officer at the World Bank and Chair e-Development Thematic Group and overall Project Manager for e-Rwanda, said that procurement has taken the centre stage as a key area to improve the ability of the state to deliver for its citizens. “Greater transparency and accountability in procurement systems increases the ability of the state to deliver more services to their citizens while also lowering the cost of necessary goods, such as textbooks and medicines,” she said. Melhem added that Rwandan officials had shown a lot of interest in the e-Procurement learning series in the last few weeks. “The benefits of reforming procurement systems are multiplied when countries implement electronic systems for government procurement,” she underscored. “The transition to an electronic system removes a great number of opportunities for corruption by reducing the need for contact between buyer and supplier; creating a centralized procurement system that can collect and analyze data”. She stressed that the World Bank is aware that technology and ICT are considered among the pillars which may lead Rwanda’s economic development towards a middle income country. According to Apollinaire Mupiganyi, the Executive Secretary of Transparency Rwanda and was one of the trainees, e-Procurement enhances competition and reduces corruption once countries change from a paper-based system to an e-procurement system.“e-Procurement determines average costs of common goods and the standardization of bidding documents and on-line submission removes a fair amount of opportunities to manipulate the procurement process pre-evaluation,” he said. Speaking to The Sunday Times, Bernard Kayiranga the Director Legal Policy and Investigation Unit at Rwanda Public Procurement Authority (RPPA), e- procurement increases transparency and citizen trust as well as confidence in the capacity of the government. The institutions represented were RPPA, the Ombudsman’s office, Office of the Auditor General, Transparency International Rwanda, and he Private Sector. Ends