Latest news with #ElectronicProcurementSystem
IOL News
2 days ago
- Business
- IOL News
How KwaZulu-Natal's new electronic procurement system will ensure timely payments and combat corruption
KwaZulu-Natal Finance MEC Francois Rodgers believed that the province's new e-Procurement system would be a game changer when it comes to the quick payment of service providers, ensuring that government departments do not procure without having money. Image: KZN Treasury Facebook With the introduction of the new Electronic Procurement System (e-Procurement) in the KwaZulu-Natal government, service providers will be paid without delays, while corruption gaps will be sealed. This was revealed when the KZN Finance Department's information technology specialist, Bongani Shezi, explained the system at a media briefing in Pietermaritzburg on Tuesday. The National Treasury, which approved and adopted the system from the national Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment (DFFE), will not pay for using it, but will only spend between R3 million and R5 million for set-up costs. The system would be fully implemented in the province between January 2026 and April 2027 through selected departments. Currently, KwaZulu-Natal will be the only province in the country to use it. In terms of operations, the system would kick in soon after a line manager identified the items needed by his or her team and got budget approval from the head of the department. The supply chain manager would then log into the system, which would automatically go to the central supplier database, which provides a list of companies that supply the required items. The system would ask the budget controller how much was available for the purchase, and it would do the quotation based on the available budget. 'The system would look at the commodity and select the suppliers, and if you want the item to be delivered in Mtubatuba (KwaZulu-Natal north coast), then it would pick suppliers around Mtubatuba,' said Shezi. He said the departments will use the system to appoint the bid evaluation committee members. 'When the documents are being evaluated, each one of them (members) would have to come into the system and do the scoring on the system, and based on the scoring, the system would then make a recommendation,' said Shezi. He said once the quotations come in, they get processed, and then the contract gets awarded automatically. 'The system would do your price because that's what comes in from quotation, depending on the service provider in terms of whether they are QSE (Qualifying Small Enterprise), rural, or township-based. 'It would then recommend the service provider, but if officials override the service provider and the system would ask, 'Why are you overriding this service provider that was recommended by the system?'' he said. Shezi said the signed contract with the start and end dates and contract amount, which would be compiled by the legal services, would be uploaded into the system. 'The end date is what the system uses to send emails to the supply chain managers to remind them that this contract is going to come to an end.' He said once the purchased items are delivered, the service provider submits an invoice, which will be captured by the system to track its movement from one person to another. He said the invoice would then go through the system to the responsible manager, who will authorise the payment. It would also go to the internal control manager, who must also check if the supporting documents are there, and then it goes to the supply chain manager, who would confirm that everything is captured correctly. Its last stop would be the finance for the release of the money to pay the service provider through the system. Shezi said someone would monitor the movement of the invoice because the government needed the invoices to be captured faster, since the system would also be used for payments. He said the provincial Treasury was looking at enhancing the system's network connectivity at all provincial offices, especially in rural areas. 'If a supplier does not have connectivity, the supplier will be able to go to a government office because the connectivity is going to be there in terms of uploading documents and checking what bids are available for quotations,' said Shezi.
IOL News
2 days ago
- Business
- IOL News
How KwaZulu-Natal's new electronic procurement system will ensure timely payments and combat corruption
KwaZulu-Natal Finance MEC Francois Rodgers believed that the province's new e-Procurement system would be a game changer when it comes to the quick payment of service providers, ensuring that government departments do not procure without having money. Image: KZN Treasury Facebook With the introduction of the new Electronic Procurement System (e-Procurement) in the KwaZulu-Natal government, service providers will be paid without delays, while corruption gaps will be sealed. This was revealed when the KZN Finance Department's information technology specialist, Bongani Shezi, explained the system at a media briefing in Pietermaritzburg on Tuesday. The National Treasury, which approved and adopted the system from the national Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment (DFFE), will not pay for using it, but will only spend between R3 million and R5 million for set-up costs. The system would be fully implemented in the province between January 2026 and April 2027 through selected departments. Currently, KwaZulu-Natal will be the only province in the country to use it. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ In terms of operations, the system would kick in soon after a line manager identified the items needed by his or her team and got budget approval from the head of the department. The supply chain manager would then log into the system, which would automatically go to the central supplier database, which provides a list of companies that supply the required items. The system would ask the budget controller how much was available for the purchase, and it would do the quotation based on the available budget. 'The system would look at the commodity and select the suppliers, and if you want the item to be delivered in Mtubatuba (KwaZulu-Natal north coast), then it would pick suppliers around Mtubatuba,' said Shezi. He said the departments will use the system to appoint the bid evaluation committee members. 'When the documents are being evaluated, each one of them (members) would have to come into the system and do the scoring on the system, and based on the scoring, the system would then make a recommendation,' said Shezi. He said once the quotations come in, they get processed, and then the contract gets awarded automatically. 'The system would do your price because that's what comes in from quotation, depending on the service provider in terms of whether they are QSE (Qualifying Small Enterprise), rural, or township-based. 'It would then recommend the service provider, but if officials override the service provider and the system would ask, 'Why are you overriding this service provider that was recommended by the system?'' he said. Shezi said the signed contract with the start and end dates and contract amount, which would be compiled by the legal services, would be uploaded into the system. 'The end date is what the system uses to send emails to the supply chain managers to remind them that this contract is going to come to an end.' He said once the purchased items are delivered, the service provider submits an invoice, which will be captured by the system to track its movement from one person to another. He said the invoice would then go through the system to the responsible manager, who will authorise the payment. It would also go to the internal control manager, who must also check if the supporting documents are there, and then it goes to the supply chain manager, who would confirm that everything is captured correctly. Its last stop would be the finance for the release of the money to pay the service provider through the system. Shezi said someone would monitor the movement of the invoice because the government needed the invoices to be captured faster, since the system would also be used for payments. He said the provincial Treasury was looking at enhancing the system's network connectivity at all provincial offices, especially in rural areas. 'If a supplier does not have connectivity, the supplier will be able to go to a government office because the connectivity is going to be there in terms of uploading documents and checking what bids are available for quotations,' said Shezi.
IOL News
3 days ago
- Business
- IOL News
KwaZulu-Natal introduces innovative e-procurement system to combat corruption
KwaZulu-Natal Finance MEC Francois Rodgers and the head of his department Carol Coetzee introducing e-procurement system to curb corruption in the provincial government. Image: Bongani Hans / Independent Media KWAZULU-Natal Finance MEC Francois Rodgers has on Tuesday introduced a first-of-its-kind system to stop corruption and politically-connected favouritism in the procurement system, which has kept him frustrated since he took over the position. The Electronic Procurement System (e-Procurement), which was announced during a press briefing held in Pietermaritzburg, was designed to block unscrupulous tenderpreneurs from undeservedly dominating government tenders that have earned them a multimillionaire or multibillionaire status. Rodgers said KwaZulu-Natal was the first province to implement the e-procurement system, which he believed was unlikely to be corrupted. 'We are trying to deal with fruitless and wasteful expenditure, fraud, and corruption. 'The system would be monitored and controlled by the treasury, and each department would no longer be able to do its procurement,' he said. The provincial government adopted the system from the Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment (DFFE). Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Next Stay Close ✕ Rodgers said the system would help the government to cut down on wasteful expenditure that has robbed the provinces of billions of rands through irregular awarding of tenders to unqualifying bidders. 'I don't need to tell you that when you look at fraud, corruption and wasteful expenditure, it is normally in the supply chain management, and those problems are around the human interaction within the supply chain. 'This electronic system is going to take away the human factor out of the awarding of tenders and procurement,' said Rodgers. He said the system would have a significant impact on building a capable and ethical state. He said e-procurement would take effect at the beginning of the 2026 financial year. He said his department was in a desperate move to save money after Finance Minister Enoch Godogwana's announcement that provinces would no longer be allowed to borrow money. He said Godogwana's announcement was based on the fact that the country had already reached an exorbitant figure of repayment of interest on loans, meaning that it was spending around R1.2 billion a day repaying loans, 'which is more than we spend on education and health in the entire country.' He said that willy-nilly spending by the departments through budgeting on money that they do not have would come to an end 'because if we continue to do that, health, education and social development would continue to struggle'. He said taking extra caution in expenditure was meant to make sure that health, education and social development, which are frontline departments, have enough money to operate properly. 'That means other departments, other than the front-line departments, are going to have to relook at how we allocate the money,' he said. Explaining how the e-procurement functions, provincial finance head Carol Coetzee said applying information technology in the procurement would be the province's fundamental shift from the corruptible manual system. She said the department had analysed all the systems that the various government spheres used to run procurement and found that the DFFE was the best. She said since it was owned by the national department, the province did not have to spend exorbitant money buying it. 'Departments are buying assets without a budget. We want to stop that. 'When you log into the system and you put in a requisition of what you need, then the system would ask you 'Do you have a budget' and the budget control would have to authorise the budget on the system and say 'yes, there is a budget' and the system would lock the estimated amount before you even start the process,' said Coetzee. She said the e-system would prevent the department's procurement officials from contacting suppliers they prefer for favours. She said the officials would indicate how many quotes they were looking for, and the system would go to the central supplier database to draw the number of suppliers that provide the commodity. 'Those quotations would not be accessible to anyone until the date for the quotations is closed. 'Currently, what is happening is you source five quotations, you get four quotations and you phone your friend, you tell him that you have received four quotations and these are the prices, and say if you give us your price below that, you are going to be rewarded,' said Coetzee.
