E-GP Functional Specifications

Abstract

Authorities in developed and newly developing countries alike have been seeking to reform and strengthen the governance and management frameworks around their systems of public procurement. Their objectives have been to enhance effective management, reduce the risk of corruption, promote economic activity, and strengthen policy and strategic development. Increasingly an important part of these reforms has become the systematic application of technology to the processes of public procurement, including in the advertising of business opportunities, management of information and workflows, document delivery, purchase orders and transactions. This systematic application of technology to government procurement, or e-Government Procurement (e-GP), can lead to a substantial automation of the procurement process but requires significant reforms and process improvements in the management of procurement. These reforms have seen the introduction of new procurement laws and regulations, the introduction of new training for public procurement officers, changes in management procedures including standardization and simplification, and enhanced competition for government procurement opportunities. However one key issue deserves further attention namely defining the functional specifications of the e-GP system that is to be acquired or built, this is the subject of this paper. This paper seeks to give guidance on what functions and qualities they could seek from their e-GP system, or if they are engaging a third party provider then this may also give guidance on what capabilities they might require in their service level agreement