The term Public eProcurement ("electronic procurement" in the public sector) refers, in Singapore, Ukraine, Europe and Canada, to the use of electronic means in conducting a public procurement procedure for the purchase of goods, works or services. eProcurement compared to normal procurement allows greater transparency, better competition and easier communication for all parties.

Benefits of public eProcurement

Benefits of Public eProcurement can differ from benefits of electronic purchasing in private sector. Governments objective is not only cost efficiency but also obtaining the best value-for-money because of a high impact of public procurement on the market and the society. Commonly discussed benefits of the eProcurement in the public sector are as follows:

Phases

The term of the Electronic Public Procurement can be defined as the usage of e-Government platform over the electronic resources (Internet and Web-based applications) to conduct transactions for purchasing the products and services from suppliers to authority's buyers. The following sub-phases of the electronic public procurement process could be identified:

eInvoicing

eInvoicing allows an invoice to be sent and received by the customer electronically. eInvoicing is currently defined in multiple ways. A simple search finds 3 simple variations: “an invoice issued, received and processed electronically”, “an invoice sent by electronic means to the recipient”, and “an invoice received by the customer electronically”. Driving a single strategy requires a single definition; a common language. The best definition should be customer-centric. The same common language divides the tiers of eInvoicing based on cash management impacts.

Enabling systems

To successfully conduct electronic procurement across borders, eProcurement systems rely on some “key-enablers”

In Practice

Portugal

Beginning in 2009 Portugal implemented mandatory use of electronic systems for public procurement. The government has continued to utilize more pilot programs to continue the implementation of the program in Portugal and to establish the e-procurement process until the contract is awarded in a public procurement deal.

Ukraine

In Ukraine the government established the Prozorro system in 2014. It was a major innovation for the government as they switched to a more transparent e-procurement system based on OpenProcurement platform.

Germany

In Germany, e-procurement solutions must be used for many public procurement procedures. The data generated by these solutions is rarely analyzed because of the "complexity of the technological environment, the need to improve visibility of procurement information and enhance systematic data collection". For instance, the Bundesrechnungshof admonished that the German Defense Ministry procured 84% of its goods and services outside of its designated e-procurement system in 2013.

Sources