The minister, Dr Abdul Hussein Mirza, who is also chairman of the Bahrain Tender Board at the launch of the e-tendering project said that the initiative would enhance the transparency, efficiency and offer an easy access to the prospective bidders to evaluate their bids on-line.
BTB, which had won international accolades for being the most transparent body in the public sector, perhaps become the first entity in the Arab world to handle the tendering process effectively by using the maximum levels of transparency.
The minister said through this state-of-the-art technology BTB moved towards a central e-tendering system fostered by the board's mandate to strengthen transparency and fair competition. The adoption of e-tendering by the tender board is an important element of the planned introduction of e-government by Bahrain.
He said: "The board has decided to implement the VARStreet solution (which was done through a tender) to provide a centralised on-line system to streamline the tendering process, provide greater transparency, better procurement practices and higher levels of service to various ministries in their tendering process."
The system will provide a single interface to the government purchasing authorities, suppliers and the tender board and automate activities performed by the parties by integrating them on a single electronic network. Among the key benefits the system will bring to BTB is a reduction in the administrative cost and improved accuracy of orders.
"Since its inception on January 7, 2003, the board has strived to enhance and further consolidate the values of transparency, fairness and integrity and to achieve the principle of equal opportunity. The board has endeavored to achieve further transparency at all phases of procedure application and to additionally secure competitiveness, fairness and equal opportunity."
"Towards that the BTB has initiated several initiatives over the last few years like Databank which helps in speeding up procedures and decision making. As a next step, the Tender Board has initiated the e-Tendering project to further enhance the process and increase transparency. This was based on the results of a Business Process Re-engineering study carried out by the Tender Board in the last year."
He added: "BTB's objective through the e-tendering system is to manage all tenders and government purchases online. The system will help in announcing bids, receiving documents, opening bids, and announcing tender awards. The use of e-Tendering in other parts of the world has already illustrated its ability to reduce administrative costs and processing time, as well as increasing the quality and transparency of decision making and reducing the number of complaints.
"Upon completion of this project which is expected in about 6 months time, the e-Tendering system will enable the Tender Board to eliminate unnecessary overheads and thus further speed up the tendering process".
"Through hard and constructive work, the Tender Board has extended bridges of co-operation between the Board and the Government Purchasing Authorities, on one hand and the local and external contractors and suppliers on the other hand".
"The aim is to ensure that Government purchases are obtained at fair and competitive prices. After the e-Tendering system goes live, the Board will encourage all Government Purchasing Authorities to use the system online as well as contractors and suppliers through a comprehensive training schedule."
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Quelle/Source: MENAFN, 04.01.2008
