Introduction of e-procurement in Georgia: goals, results, further activities

1. Introduction of e-procurement in Georgia: goals, results, further activities Tbilisi, November, 2010

2. Aims • Minimization of tender participation costs; • Efficient and transparent use of public funds; • Fair and unbiased evaluation process; • Easy access to all procurement related information; • Streamlining of procurement procedures; • Increased competition.

3. Polls by GTZ and GEA on E-procurement Awareness • Factors preventing a participation of companies in public procurement at the moment: • Too much documentation/information requested (70%). • Costs and technical requirements for participation in procurement too high (72%). • Uneasy access to procurement information (54%). • Lack of transparency for 59% (although no appeals). • Procurement information not correctly formulated (50%). • Procurement officers with insufficient quality of response (26% in Tbilisi, 70% in Imereti). • Handling of payments too long (70%).

4. Polls by GTZ and GEA on E-procurement Awareness • Introduction of e-procurement largely unknown (82%): • for procurement information, companies in Tbilisi use Internet and “24 hours” and companies in Imereti mouth-to-mouth and “24 hours”. • SPA website is known by 66% in Tbilisi and 14% in Imereti. • in Tbilisi, 83% would focus on the available SPA information (manual, video tutorial). In Imereti, 43% would prefer personal advisory in the region. • Internet connectivity: 93% in Tbilisi, 30% in Imereti. • Credit-card rate momentarily 40% in Tbilisi and 3% in Imereti.

5. Main results (cont.) • Tender fee decreased 4 times – GEL 50 (instead of GEL 200); • Tender threshold decreased 20 times; • Non-competitive procurement procedures are merely used; • Significant decrease of administrative and logistic expenses.

6. Main results (cont.) • Online purchase/ no need for written contract; • Less formalities/no need to obtain/submit documents from other state bodies, proving qualitative data; • Only the winning bidder has to submit mentioned documents.

7. Main results (cont.) • Objective and quantifiable evaluation criteria - price; • Pass/fail for others (delivery time; relevant experience;turnover, etc.); • Web-payment of tender participation fee; • SPA – more service oriented (e.g. e-mail notification); • Ex ante prevention vs. ex post enforcement;

8. Current activities • Integration of annual plans and quarterly reports modules into the system; • Business Intelligence module; • Electronic dispute review board/Civil society participation in decision making; • Introduction of HR management system/ restructuring of SPA; • Training of trainers/ User manual

9. Planned Activities • Trainings for Procuring Entities Using Distance Learning Technologies; • Deployment of E-document flow in SPA; • Notifying about Announced Tenders using Electronic Means; • Deployment of Web-Payment System for Bid-Bonds

11. Tender procedures (on paper)

12. Tender procedures (on paper)

13. Streamlined e-tender procedures

14. Streamlined e-tender procedures

15. e-Tender

16. Thank you for your attention! 28 Pekini Ave., Tbilisi 0160, Georgia tel.: (+99532) 382184, e-mail: info@procurement.gov.ge