Towards e-Perolehan Enabled Govt Procurement Centres

Bernama - 25 November 2002

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 25 (Bernama) -- The Ministry of Finance is stepping up efforts to ensure all government procurement centres or buying agencies are ePerolehan-enabled, targeting 520 centres in the Klang Valley alone within the next few months.

This is part of an aggressive bid to seal Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad's vision of making the Malaysian Government the world's first to trade via an online electronic marketplace.

The Prime Minister had said this in his speech during the 2003 budget presentation.

"Currently 100 procurement centres or PTJs (Pusat Tanggungjawab) are already ePerolehan-enabled and with another 400 or so to be enabled by the end of the year, the Klang Valley will officially spearhead the implementation of our Government's nationwide electronic procurement system," Datuk Mohd Salleh Masduki, chief executive of Commerce Dot Com Sdn Bhd, said Monday.

"Ultimately this means that the Government will only purchase from suppliers who have displayed their goods and services in the ePerolehan system," he said in a statement here Monday.

ePerolehan is the nation's unique state-of-the-art electronic procurement sytem for Government-to-Business (G2B) exchanges that is set to streamline process and procedures for increased efficiency and productivity.

With ePerolehan, government buyers can now make more accurate procurement decisions, with immediate access to the latest product and pricing information available on-line thereby making smart purchases instantly, Mohd Salleh said.

In addition, by having better management of purchases and payments, PTJs nationwide will be able to track or audit procurement processes and transactions at every step of the way.

This is set to leapfrog the country's transformation to the K-Economy and promote the widespread adoption of e-Commerce in Malaysia, Mohd Salleh said.

Government suppliers in turn will be able to derive significant benefits of increased revenue opportunities with access to a wider base of buyers both international and local.

As business operations become automated with ePerolehan, suppliers would have simplified end-to-end processes and reduced administrative work resulting in immense savings in operational costs amidst shorter turnaround periods.

Mohd Salleh also called on all Government suppliers who have registered with ePerolehan, to get enabled with the system in order to avoid losing out.

"Getting enabled is a simple process whereby suppliers are only requested to spend RM300 for a minimum of one ePerolehan smart card and an ePerolehan smart card reader," he said.

For the convenience of all ePerolehan users, eP Shoppes and eP Service Points have now been established in various strategic locations around the country to ease the enablement process.

Details can be obtained at www.eperolehan.com.my.