To increase transparency, and accountability and reduce the cost of resources that are spent on procurement processes and as well as value for money, for the first time in Liberia with funding from the World Bank and African Development Bank (AfDB) the Public Procurement Concessions Commission (PPCC) is expected to conduct/launch the development of a robust Electronic Government Procurement (EGP) System in Liberia.
An international software developer, European Dynamics was contracted by PPCC to develop the EGPS on software as an aid service module. The system is digital software that is used to carry out all procurement activities in the country. The significance of the online platform is that it brings transparency to the Public procurement ecosystem and as well efficiency in how PPCC goes about doing business in government.
According to PPCC, several procurement entities have refused to report on a quarterly basis but with the system they intend to make sure that all public entities are online and to make them report on time so, that the public can see what they are doing.
Speaking on the system, the PPCC Executive Director Mr. Bodger Scott Johnson in an interview in Paynesville on Tuesday, May 28, 2024, disclosed that they are on the road to working and as well creating awareness for the new EGP system, a digital system that will change the country procurement system.
Mr. Johnson indicated that the system will be digitized on a computer and will be built by European Dynamic, a company contracted by PPCC.
He said for the first time the system will be rolled out in faces starting with the first six government ministries, Finance, Public Works, Education, Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA), National Social Security Corporation (NASSCORP), and PPCC and the second face will be next year.
Mr. Johnson said they intend to include about fiftygovernment entities in rolling out the system but will be some part of next year.
According to him, the aim is to make the country’s procurement process transparent wherein they will have an entity procurement plan, and procurement report online so that the public can see everything including those that will want to bid on government contracts.
“You will not have procurement director from maybe Ministry of Health saying I have something coming up but everything will be online including the entire procurement plan for the whole year will be online for people to see,” Johnson said.
He highlighted that the procurement process is going paperless adding that “coming to our office with procurement documents, it takes away the human contact, and so institutions bidding process will be online for the public to see what they are bidding, how the process was done be it selection or restriction,” he asserted.
Mr. Johnson thanked their development partners, the World Bank and the African Development Bank (AfDB) for being very instrumental and supportive of the Government of Liberia on the new initiative.
He further stated that they hired a consultant who is working with them and intends to launch the system officially in September of this year.
“We will start the test run of the system starting June 16, 2024, and training will also be conducted for the first six ministries procurement officers in August and officially launch it in September 2024,” he stated.
The PPCC boss mentioned that procurement officers from each ministry will be trained at PPCC and will be given a computer and a scanner to enable them to upload documents into the system. He added that the project is being funded by the World Bank and African Development Bank in the tone of over USD3 million.
He said they intend to include the Ministry of State so they are working closely with partners to have the president involved in the initial stages to have a political buy-in for people to realize that the system is a serious business. He maintained that the Ministries of State, Finance, Health, Education, LRA, NASSCORP, and PPCC are the first batch and seven ministries that will test the system in the first phase.
Johnson emphasized that since the system is new and they are initially rolling out in seven ministries they still expect ministries to deal with some manual documents but the goal is by the end of 2025 all government entities should have the system and using it.
“Training will also be conducted for contractors and vendors who will want to bid on government tenders. PPCC will give them an ID and a password even those from civil society who want to see what the government is doing with the country’s resources can log on and see where procurement is being spent and as well see what Public Works or Health Ministry is buying and as well ask question. You can be in any part of Liberia even the world and log in, if you want to bid at any ministry you will see the tenders in any kind of business you do, just log in and submit your proposal and other documents. There will be a timeline for you to submit your proposal and the system will cut off once the time expires so nobody can say you cheated me or it was not a fair process. If a bid is due July 1 at 2 pm the system will tell you that you have submitted before 2 or after 2 pm and there will be no argument on who bid late or first,” he explained.
Johnson Continued: “It is a new day for Liberia. Thanks to the President’s Office for being very supportive. This is not about politics it gives the government the future of sustainable financial management. We are the only country in the sub-region that doesn’t have an E-procurement system. It is about transparency; bear in mind that about 40% of our national budget is spent on procurement so we have to be very mindful and ensure that transparency takes away corruption. The government should also bear in mind that 85-90% of corruption in government around the world starts from procurement so Liberia should ensure that the system works here so that everybody can benefit and the country the right track. We went on a tour in Nigeria, and visited Lagos and saw that they have an efficient procurement system and also Edo State has a system that was built by the same company we are using and they did a very good job there. The very day the E-procurement system was launched in Edo the people saw a change in their financial management system; they saw revenue going up and corruption curtailed to some extent so it is a good way to go to stop the noise on government resources and the rest”.
Mr. Johnson encouraged all Liberian businesses to take advantage of the new E-procurement to comply with PPCC.“There will implement change management deployed in entities to guide the procurement officers to ensure the is being used and adopted. There have been instances where you introduced a system and people just don’t want to be bored with it.
The goal of change management is to encourage people to use the system and adopt the system. PPCC is not political our goal is to make sure that public funds, goods, and services are spent according to the law and encourage all government entities to submit their procurement plan because the budget has been passed and entities should be submitting their plan, we are now approaching the six months of the year,” he said.
Also speaking, the EGP system Project Manager and Consultant, Mr. Ezekiel Obazader stressed that the status of every nation’s infrastructure development is linked with the efficiency of the public procurement process.
Mr. Obazader said that globally public procurement is seen as the number one corruption risk factor in any government and to address this perceived corruption in procurement a lot of nations have started adopting best practices which include leveraging technology that brings to bed E-procurement.
He said E-procurement is about the collaborative use of technology to carry out all procurement activities as well as contract management activities to ensure efficiency, transparency, and value for money. “The E-procurement project that the GOL is currently adopting will bring to bed a lot of value for money in how a procurement is conducted ensuring compliance and another critical factor that will stick to the nation’s development,” he said.
Mr. Obazader also revealed that they have developed a plan for activities proceeding the go live, testing, training, and other activities and also adopted a strategic plan to see the implementation of the system successful that will include making sure that the political buy-in and sufficient training is made available for those that will be using the system. He warned that adopting the EGP system in Liberia is a firm of joy that will bring a new dawn to how the public financial management space is revenuationalizing.
He bragged that European Dynamics has developed a lot of systems globally and is currently providing software services to over 19 states in Nigeria and including Kenya, Zambia, and other African countries they have a track record of efficiently providing a robust EGP system and which qualified them to meet the need of the Liberian Government as it relates to public procurement and EGP.
“The system is being developed in modules where you have planning, registration, tendering, evaluation, and award which represents the critical aspect of the whole public procurement process so the EGP system I can categorically say that haven’t reviewed the system requirement specification will sufficiently cover everything that pertains to public procurement in Liberia. The system conforms with the provision of the PPCA which means issues relating to compliance will be successfully addressed and it will provide a centralized view of all procurement data ever has an interest in the procurement activities conducted by the government will not have to visit the PPCC, they can just log on and have a view of what is happening to a particular procurement at a particular time and as well know the status of every process,” he maintained.
He added “The system is robust and there is sufficient audit trill which brings to bed accountability of using the system. Everyone using it will be held accountable for their action. This is not the time to say this person did this, there is an audit trill that everybody or whatever action that appears on your dashboard requires you to act and there is a log of all activities that you will do on the system so this is brought about accountability into the whole procurement process”.
