PPDA moves to enhance procurement process

Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority (PPDA) has expressed optimism that its newly launched electronic-service platform will speed up implementation of various projects to be undertaken by government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).

PPDA director general Edington Chilapondwa said this on Monday in Lilongwe when he opened a two-day training on the e-service platform for various MDAs.

He said the common outcry has been the speed at which PPDA responds to MDAs.

Said Chilapondwa: “This has been a common outcry to the extent that some projects stall because of our processes.

“We had no choice, but to engage into digitisation and now we are operationalising it by bringing on board 45 government MDAs so that the speed the nation has been looking for should be attained.”

Reserve Bank of Malawi procurement officer Ronald Banda said the manual procurement process takes a long time.

“We expect the process to be shortened by this initiative. We used to submit hard copies to PPDA, but now we will be sending documents electronically so the process will be shortened,” he said.

E-Government procurement information technology manager Mcneil Mhango said the system will improve the processes of procurement.

He said: “One of the challenges in procurement has been the delays in submission of documents used for approving procurements.

“Documents would take longer and even the processing of those documents was taking ages.”

Mhango said they hope the training will improve the processes of procurement.