Introduction of e-procurement in Georgia: goals, results, further activities Tbilisi, November, 2010

General facts 2010 (9 months)2009 Procurement funds GEL GEL Tenders Black List Admin. cases2210 Disputes7 (all in favor of bidders)5 (1 in favor of bidder)

Aims  Minimization of tender participation costs;  Efficient and transparent use of public funds;  Fair and unbiased evaluation process;  Easy access to all procurement related information;  Streamlining of procurement procedures;  Increased competition.

Polls by GTZ and GEA on E-procurement Awareness  Different sources of information: – for procurement information, companies in Tbilisi use Internet and “24 hours” and companies in Imereti mouth-to-mouth and “24 hours”. – SPA website is known by 66% in Tbilisi and 14% in Imereti. – in Tbilisi, 83% would focus on the available SPA information (manual, video tutorial). In Imereti, 43% would prefer personal advisory in the region.  Internet connectivity: 93% in Tbilisi, 30% in Imereti.  Credit-card rate momentarily 40% in Tbilisi and 3% in Imereti.

Polls by GTZ and GEA on E-procurement Awareness Introduction of e-procurement largely unknown (82%).  Factors preventing a participation of companies in public procurement at the moment: – Too much documentation/information requested (70%). – Costs and technical requirements for participation in procurement too high (72%). – Uneasy access to procurement information (54%). – Lack of transparency for 59% (although no appeals). – Procurement information not correctly formulated (50%). – Procurement officers with insufficient quality of response (26% in Tbilisi, 70% in Imereti). – Handling of payments too long (70%).

Main results (cont.)  Tender fee decreased 4 times – GEL 50 (instead of GEL 200);  Tender threshold decreased 20 times;  Non-competitive procurement procedures are merely used;  Significant decrease of administrative and logistic expenses.

Main results ( cont. )  Online purchase/ no need for written contract ;  Less formalities/no need to obtain/submit documents from other state bodies, proving qualitative data;  Only the winning bidder has to submit mentioned documents.

Main results (cont.)  Objective and quantifiable evaluation criteria - price;  Pass/fail for others (delivery time; relevant experience; turnover, etc.);  Web-payment of tender participation fee;  SPA – more service oriented (e.g. notification);  Ex ante prevention vs. ex post enforcement;

Current activities  Integration of annual plans and quarterly reports modules into the system;  Business Intelligence module;  Electronic dispute review board/Civil society participation in decision making;  Introduction of HR management system/ restructuring of SPA;  Training of trainers/ User manualUser manual

Planned Activities  Trainings for Procuring Entities Using Distance Learning Technologies;  Deployment of E-document flow in SPA;  Notifying about Announced Tenders using Electronic Means;  Deployment of Web-Payment System for Bid-Bonds

Tender procedures (on paper)

Streamlined e-tender procedures

e-Tender

Thanks for attention!