From 1st May 2023, public procurements over Rs. 200 million can only be made electronically

After 1st May 2023, any government procurement over Rs. 200 million can only be made via open and transparent e-procurement processes, State Minister of Finance Ranjith Siyambalapitiya says.

“Government activity of purchasing goods, services and works give rise to alleged corruption and various malpractices, therefore, the government is taking action to implement e-procurements to eliminate the direct human interaction on calling tenders, bidding, evaluating financial and technical reviews etc. to tackle corruption in the ministries and government departments,” he says.

“The Ministry of Finance issued a circular to this effect on April 19. According to it, after 1st May 2023, any government procurement over Rs. 200 million can only be made via open and transparent e-procurement processes. This will include all government purchases as well as tenders. Our target is to ensure that by end 2024 all government purchases will only be through e-procurement. Placing tenders, bidding, financial and technical evaluations, sealing of final agreement will all be processed electronically. This is a system followed by the advanced economies to tackle bribery, corruption and other malpractices. For this, we will be getting the IT expertise of the University of Colombo as well,” he says.

The minister also mentioned that relevant agreement would be signed with the European Union and the World Bank in May for the implementation of this system.