Benefits of E-Procurement Systems Implementation

E-procurement systems are widely discussed in the eBusiness literature in which it is claimed that businesses generally experience three types of benefits (e.g. operational, tactical, and strategic) from implementing these systems. However, limited studies have so far been reported in the e-government literature on the benefits e-procurement systems have provided for the Australian municipality context. This chapter thus reviews the existing literature and reports e-procurement benefits experience of a large Australian municipal council. The findings indicate that the council's experience is limited to the attainment of operational and tactical benefits, and no evidence has been found about gaining any strategic benefits. In addition, several factors are identified that influenced those benefits. The lessons learned from the experience of the council are discussed and contributions made to the e-procurement literature for the public government context are highlighted.

Application of E-Government Principles in Anti-Corruption Framework

The use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) plays a significant role in the economic, technological and social progression of a country. Corruption in government agencies and institutions is a serious problem in many countries in the world, especially in under-developed and developing countries. The use of ICT tools such as e-governance can help to reduce corruption. In this chapter, the authors discussed the application of e-government principles to mitigate corruption. Based on the available literature, this study identified some potential elements of e-government, which are currently practised around the world and how they are interrelated to fight against corruption. Finally, the authors present an evidence-based e-government anti-corruption framework.

Digital Governance and E-Government Principles

This chapter focuses on the capacity of digital governance to address key aspects of reform of traditional procurement, the growing complexity of government, and the governance challenges of many developing countries. The chapter reviews the problems of traditional procurement, the distinction between simple versus complex procurement, and new modalities, and notes that the prevailing procurement model has been built on a framework designed for simple and manual procurement. Modernization efforts to address these issues have often been scoped around the robust governance institutions of advanced economies and are not good matches to the very different realities in many middle income and emerging economies. The chapter discusses how e-Government principles applied in e-procurement can play a critical role in resolving some of the challenges in public procurement.

Public Procurement Framework in India

Studies highlight that public procurement in any country acts as a barometer of public confidence in fairness and transparency of public institutions. A number of cases related to corruption in public procurement in the country have been highlighted by media on regular basis. These incidents raise questions regarding robustness of the procurement framework in vogue in the country. Though no special legislative framework dealing with public procurement exists in the country, the administrative guidelines on the subject are quite exhaustive. Procurement is not a state subject; hence law can be made by the Centre for entire country. However, no separate law governing public procurement has been enacted in India. However, public procurement in India is not bereft of its share of issues. Multiplicity of instructions, absence of procurement law and singular emphasis on upfront value of acquisition without considering life cycle cost mars public procurement in India. Further, social and environmental sustainability has also not received the attention it deserves. Studies highlight that migration of public procurement to Internet could provide us savings of up to 25% by streamlining 30% of Indian Union Budget spent on provisioning of goods / services. However, any such endeavor has 70% chances of failure. With only 13% e-procurement research focusing on public sector make matter worse. In the above backdrop, the chapter would cover: Importance of public procurement, Difference between public and corporate procurement, Overview of procurement framework of the country - covering constitutional/ legislative/ administrative provisions, generic public procurement process, various types of procurements – limited tender, open tender, single tender, issues in public procurement of the country and e-procurement initiatives by Government of India and status thereof.

Electronic Government Procurement in Latin America and the Caribbean

The chapter explores the topic of electronic government procurement (e-GP) in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), the factors that affected the development of such systems, how they evolved differently across the region and the challenges going forward. The information included in this chapter will provide insight on how e-GP implementation has been a key element in public procurement reform in LAC as well as important lessons from the region.

Challenges in Chilean E-Procurement System

ChileCompra (CC) is the procurement authority of Chile. Purchases are made independently by the public entities, but CC is responsible for market regulation and management of the electronic platform, where transactions are made. ChileCompra was launched on 2003, within a deep State modernization process which started by the end of the 90s. ChileCompra was born with the mission of generating a substantial change in public procurement, as the previous system was neither responding to market needs nor to the accountability which citizens demanded. The objective was the creation of a transparent, efficient, and – most of all - accessible system, which would create equal business opportunities to companies of all sizes, especially for micro and small ones. ChileCompra manages the public procurement market, facilitating the acquisition of goods and services for public authorities; with high levels of transparency and equal opportunities for every enterprise, especially the smallest ones. Through the electronic platform www.mercadopublico.cl – which is the biggest electronic marketplace in the country – public organizations are connected to suppliers within a transparent and efficient system based on a solid regulatory framework whose governing principles are universality, accessibility, and non-discrimination. ChileCompra is currently a strong system, with high levels of transparency and efficiency. As other public procurement national systems, ChileCompra is now facing second generation challenges, like the strengthening of the public procurement role in the socio economic national development. This chapter focuses on the evolution of the Chilean public procurement system, lessons learned and challenges, and the conditions to make it a complete electronic procurement process.

Public Procurement Reform in Georgia

The Georgian public procurement system has undergone significant Public Financial Management reforms over the last few years. The goal of creation, introduction and management of the Georgian Electronic Government Procurement (Ge-GP) system was delegated upon the State Procurement Agency, which succeeded in ensuring the development of the software for the Ge-GP system under the assistance of the National Agency of Public Registry. The Ge-GP system was created within less than one year. From the first of December, 2010 all the paper-based tenders were abolished and electronic procurement has become the single platform. Through the introduction of electronic procurement platform, the Georgian procurement system has become considerably more transparent and nondiscriminatory, encouraging free and fair competition and minimizing the risk of corruption. Experience of the Georgian e-Procurement System could be one of the motivating factors for the countries working towards public procurement reform.

Managing Collaboration in E-Procurement

While e-procurement provides efficiency and cost-savings, are governments that are utilizing these systems really getting what they want, particularly when procuring services? While e-procurement provides governments methods to communicate better with service providers and have access to more service providers, do the systems allow for collaboration? As there is a significant amount of research the issues related to procurement in the U.S., this chapter will use it as an example to demonstrate the need to collaborate and not just communicate. For years there has been discussion on the issues and reforms to the U.S. federal procurement process. One of the major issues is communications and collaboration. Goodrich provided in his Federal Times article “6 simple fixed for the federal procurement process.” Five of the six areas involve communications and collaboration: poorly conceived documentation; contracting offices and program offices working as a team rather than independent; lengthy procurement decisions; government understands what they bought; and talk with industry. This chapter provides the background of the procurement process, current trends and recent approaches. It explores how the Alpha contracting method could be applied to Contracts by Negotiations / Full and Open procurements. Finally, it provides a Collaborative Government Model which takes a holistic and strategic approach to collaboration. There is a need to approach this collaboration in a strategic manner as it includes facets such as hierarchy, networking, and inter-personal interactions that are not linear in nature.

Electronification of the Public Procurement System

This chapter analyzes the reform of public procurement systems in Russia and Ukraine in the context of electronization, as well as a comparative analysis of the effectiveness of such reforms. The goal is to determine the prospects of expanding the scope of e-procurement based on the analysis of the implementation of the reform of public procurement systems effects in Russia and Ukraine. Public procurement is a fundamental component of social and economic policy of any state, by means of this mechanism the government has the ability to create and influence the industry for future changes in production structures, increase efficiency and more rapid transition to an innovative new type of economy. Procurers are dependent on funds that provide their functioning and providing services to the population. Provision of works, goods and services to such customers is carried out by means of public procurement market, which, enhances the efficiency and transparency of spending money through a contractual relationship satisfying the needs of the state. The share of public procurement (including procurement of state-owned companies) is more over 25% of Russia's GDP, while in Ukraine - more than 7%. That's why it is possible to make a comparative analysis of public procurement reform in Russia and the Ukraine, whose legal approach is quite close (Tsygankov & Syropyatov, 2014).

Dynamics of the E-Procurement Process and Key Implementation Issues in India

The advent of the Internet as a business systems platform has been a catalyst for major changes in the operation and status of organizational procurement. Early e-procurement literature forecast significant improvements in procurement costs, an improving status of the purchasing function, and changes to the structure of supply markets. Our study seeks to evaluate the validity of these forecasts through the development of a structural model of the ‘e-procurement effect'. This model is intended to define the dynamics of the e-procurement process in an organization and provide a foundation for a research stream into the transformational effect of e-procurement deployment. The chapter presents the evaluation of e-procurement implementation and operation from an eighteen-month study of e-procurement deployment across nine Indian public sector organizations. The chapter explores five key themes in e-procurement, namely system specification, implementation management, changes to organizational characteristics, changes in total acquisition costs, and changes to governance structures. Our analysis suggests that the proposed structural model of the e-procurement effect is broadly applicable and that many of the previous claimed benefits in the literature can be realized. We also contend that an important variable for the success of e-procurement adoption is to address the internal service quality attributes of e-procurement processes, a topic which offers significant scope for future research.