14 hours ago
How KwaZulu-Natal's new electronic procurement system will ensure timely payments and combat corruption
KwaZulu-Natal Finance MEC Francois Rodgers believed that the province's new e-Procurement system would be a game changer when it comes to the quick payment of service providers, ensuring that government departments do not procure without having money.
Image: KZN Treasury Facebook
With the introduction of the new Electronic Procurement System (e-Procurement) in the KwaZulu-Natal government, service providers will be paid without delays, while corruption gaps will be sealed.
This was revealed when the KZN Finance Department's information technology specialist, Bongani Shezi, explained the system at a media briefing in Pietermaritzburg on Tuesday.
The National Treasury, which approved and adopted the system from the national Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment (DFFE), will not pay for using it, but will only spend between R3 million and R5 million for set-up costs.
The system would be fully implemented in the province between January 2026 and April 2027 through selected departments. Currently, KwaZulu-Natal will be the only province in the country to use it.
In terms of operations, the system would kick in soon after a line manager identified the items needed by his or her team and got budget approval from the head of the department.
The supply chain manager would then log into the system, which would automatically go to the central supplier database, which provides a list of companies that supply the required items.
The system would ask the budget controller how much was available for the purchase, and it would do the quotation based on the available budget.
'The system would look at the commodity and select the suppliers, and if you want the item to be delivered in Mtubatuba (KwaZulu-Natal north coast), then it would pick suppliers around Mtubatuba,' said Shezi.
He said the departments will use the system to appoint the bid evaluation committee members.
'When the documents are being evaluated, each one of them (members) would have to come into the system and do the scoring on the system, and based on the scoring, the system would then make a recommendation,' said Shezi.
He said once the quotations come in, they get processed, and then the contract gets awarded automatically.
'The system would do your price because that's what comes in from quotation, depending on the service provider in terms of whether they are QSE (Qualifying Small Enterprise), rural, or township-based.
'It would then recommend the service provider, but if officials override the service provider and the system would ask, 'Why are you overriding this service provider that was recommended by the system?'' he said.
Shezi said the signed contract with the start and end dates and contract amount, which would be compiled by the legal services, would be uploaded into the system.
'The end date is what the system uses to send emails to the supply chain managers to remind them that this contract is going to come to an end.'
He said once the purchased items are delivered, the service provider submits an invoice, which will be captured by the system to track its movement from one person to another.
He said the invoice would then go through the system to the responsible manager, who will authorise the payment.
It would also go to the internal control manager, who must also check if the supporting documents are there, and then it goes to the supply chain manager, who would confirm that everything is captured correctly.
Its last stop would be the finance for the release of the money to pay the service provider through the system.
Shezi said someone would monitor the movement of the invoice because the government needed the invoices to be captured faster, since the system would also be used for payments.
He said the provincial Treasury was looking at enhancing the system's network connectivity at all provincial offices, especially in rural areas.
'If a supplier does not have connectivity, the supplier will be able to go to a government office because the connectivity is going to be there in terms of uploading documents and checking what bids are available for quotations,' said Shezi.
