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

2. 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.

3. Polls by GTZ and GEA on E-procurement Awareness  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%).

4. Polls by GTZ and GEA on E-procurement Awareness  Introduction of e-procurement largely unknown (82%): – 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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. e-mail notification);  Ex ante prevention vs. ex post enforcement;

8. 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

9. 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

11. Tender procedures (on paper)

13. Streamlined e-tender procedures

15. e-Tender

16. Thank you for your attention! 28 Pekini Ave., Tbilisi 0160, Georgia tel.: (+99532) 382184, e-mail: info@procurement.gov.geinfo@procurement.gov.ge