Finance minister Nhlanhla Nene has announced a new government procurement website and other measures aimed at making it more efficient for the state to procure good and services.

In his medium-term budget policy speech, delivered in parliament on Wednesday, Nene said government had made good progress in modernising supply chain management.

Government has established an e-tender portal, providing a single point of entry to business opportunities with the state, Nene said in the speech.

“This enhances transparency and reduces the time and cost of accessing tender documents,” he said.

A central supplier database is already operational, helping to ease administrative burdens, he said. More than 20 000 suppliers have registered and 9 500 have been verified.

In addition, government will later this month launch a buying site for high-volume, low-value items, which Nene said would be “similar in design to commercial e-commerce sites”.

“Supply chain management practitioners can now purchase routine items through the Web at www.gCommerce.gov.za,” the minister said.

Nene said, too, that a consolidated procurement bill is being developed to rationalise the more than 80 legal instruments, guidelines and instruction notes that currently apply.

“A framework has been developed to standardise public procurement reporting, supported by a training programme for responsible officials,” he said. “Further enhancements that support SMMEs in the area of electronic bids, quotations and technologies will be implemented in 2016/2017.”

He said the public sector spends more than R500bn/year on procurement. “Making better use of technology is important, but it is not enough. Reform of supply chain management will remain a central priority, to generate short- and medium-term savings, but more importantly to bring value for money, and to combat corruption.” — © 2015 NewsCentral Media