Suppliers must now deal with govt through ePerolehan

THE Ministry of Finance has issued a directive to all 35,000 government suppliers nation-wide to be ePerolehan-enabled or risk losing out on government-related business opportunities, according to Commerce Dot Com Sdn Bhd.

All government procurement business must from now on be conducted through ePerolehan, a statement from Commerce Dot Com yesterday quoted the ministry as saying.

In line with the directive, government suppliers must have the proper information communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and be ePerolehan-ready to gain access to the government's procurement system.

ePerolehan is an end-to-end electronic government system that enables suppliers to sell their products and services to the government via the Internet. An e-government flagship application project under the Multimedia Super Corridor initiative, it is developed, implemented and managed by Commerce Dot Com in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance.

Three modules under this new electronic sales channel supplier registration, central contract and direct purchases are already fully functional and are being used by the government in its procurement exercises.

Currently, almost all suppliers to the government are registered with ePerolehan. However, fewer than 18,000 electronic catalogue items have been created and uploaded into the ePerolehan system.

Electronic catalogues are a critical component of the e-procurement system and suppliers have been urged to place their product catalogues into the ePerolehan system to enable the government to source for their goods.

By the end of the first quarter, when ePerolehan's quotation and tender procurement modules go live, suppliers will be able to submit quotations, obtain tender documents and submit bids online.

Commerce Dot Com chief executive Datuk Mohd Salleh Masduki said that through ePerolehan, suppliers would not only become accessible to procurement centres nationwide, but would also automatically qualify as global suppliers.