e-Procurement should be introduced to curb corruption said Deputy Minister of Public Enterprise Development, Eran Wickremaratne. He was speaking at a function to commemorate International Human Rights Day, yesterday.
“Corruption takes place when bidding for government tenders. The monetary loss due to manipulating tenders in Sri Lanka is unimaginable,” he said.
Eighty-seven percent of the country’s income comes through the Customs, the Inland Revenue and Excise Departments and the number of procurements in these departments is very high, the minister shared.
“When there’s discretion there is corruption. So the best way out is to minimise human involvement,” the Minister said.
Under e-procurement, a common platform is introduced and bidding is done through this platform where human involvement and interaction is minimum.
Asian countries such as India and Bangladesh have saved money by opting for such technical procedures. Time and costs are also reduced considerably.
According to statistics, the procurement process in Bangladesh now takes only 50 days and in India it has dropped from 135 days to 35 days.
Korea tops the list in the Asian region with only two hours spent on procurement.
The Minister outlining the importance of introducing e-procurement said, “Corruption will prevail irrespective of what party is in power, but taking human involvement out of the equation will definitely bring about a solution.”