E-bidding, e-markets slash project procurement costs

E-bidding, e-markets slash project procurement costs

The government has saved more from e-bidding and e-markets for procurement than it has through e-auctions, says the Comptroller General's Department.

The government's procurement costs used to be reduced by only 1-3% from the set budget, but e-bidding has managed to save up to 22.8%, director-general Manas Jamveha said.

From March 1 to June 14, a total of 583 projects were auctioned through e-bidding. There were winners for 57 projects with a combined bidding amount of 136 million baht, lower than the budget set at 175 million.

A total of 27 projects went under e-market auctions in the same period, and seven had winners with a combined bidding amount of 30.7 million baht, 6.06% below the budget set at 32.7 million.

E-bidding and e-markets will completely replace e-auctions from Oct 1 in an effort to avert corruption and price collusion while improving procurement transparency.

E-auctions, launched in 2005 under ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, require suppliers to bid for contracts at a specific place, allowing them to get to know one another and opening up opportunities for them to collude in driving prices down.

E-bidding and e-markets have been created to stem the e-auction's loopholes, as state agencies' trading partners interested in selling products through both systems must register on the department's website before putting their products' details and prices in an e-catalogue.

Government agencies will be able to compare product prices and quality before making purchases.

Separately, Mr Manas forecast the drought-relief budget for fiscal 2015 would double from last fiscal year. His department had paid 949 million baht as of May 31 for groundwater extraction, fuel for water transport and water tanks.

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