City develops e-Procurement

City develops e-Procurement

Bambang Nurbianto
The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

To eliminate opportunities for corruption in the bidding process
for projects, the Jakarta administration will develop a new
system of procurement through its website www.dki.go.id.

The e-Procurement system, according to city spokesman Tjatur
Laswanto, is set out in the newly signed Gubernatorial
Instruction No. 78/2005, which will affect all agencies.

"The development of e-Procurement is a response to criticism
over the lack of transparency in our tender process. The new
system will be gradually introduced starting next year," Tjatur
said at City Hall.

"We believe that, with the system, all tenders can be carried
out through quick, accurate, transparent, efficient, fair and
auditable processes," Tjatur added.

But Tjatur did not say how long it would be before the system
was in full swing, nor which bidding opportunities would open up
next year.

He declined to reveal the cost of developing the system.

The city administration has been criticized over corruption in
the bidding process, with watchdogs estimating over 30 percent of
this year's budget was embezzled by officials.

Several suppliers for the city administration's projects have
said the tender process is mere administrative work as only one
company has any real chance of winning.

According to Tjatur, e-Procurement was developed to prevent
direct contact between administration officials and
businesspeople.

He said a team of representatives of relevant agencies, who
were assisted by professional consultants, had come up with the
system.

Tjatur said team members would carry out comparative studies
in cities that had already applied e-Procurement, such as
Denpasar, Surabaya, New Delhi and Kuala Lumpur.