PITB rolls out e-Procurement System for petty purchases in five departments

Lahore: Punjab IT Board has rolled out its in house developed e-Procurement System for petty purchases in five departments of Punjab Government in order to make the procurement process more transparent, prompt and effective.

It was stated by the Chairman PITB Dr. Umar Saif while addressing a meeting held at Arfa Software Technology Park on Friday. He said “initially the system has been introduced in Punjab Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA), Punjab Resource Management Programme, Excise and Taxation department, Law department and PITB itself and ready for use of all other departments.

It will enable online procurement up to the amount of PKR. 100,000/-.  Earlier this was being processed manually and had a number of loopholes. Now vendors can file only one genuine quotation against each procurement opportunity as the National Tax Number is required to enter for registration. Moreover, the process is made easy, quick and hassle free.

While sitting in the office, a vendor can see the details of a bid, submit quotation and win the contract online. One will not have to visit the concerned office physically and bribe someone to get papers even. Besides, it will save up to 25 percent government budget allocated for petty purchases and will bring standardization in purchase prices across all departments.

Dr. Saif told that concerned officials of above said departments had been trained to run the system successfully. He said that all departments and offices of the Punjab Govt. would get a comprehensive e-procurement system soon while work is in progress to devise major system covering all type of procurement that included works, goods and services with the help of the World Bank and PPRA.

“Vendors can get themselves registered on http://eprocurement.pitb.gov.pk and enjoy the technology right now; any Government department willing to use the system can also request PITB for access,” he added.