Story by Stanley James, Business Editor
ZIMBABWE’s Electronic Government Procurement System has gained strong support from women entrepreneurs, who have praised its transparency and the efficiency it brings to the procurement process.
The Women in Procurement Meeting, held on Tuesday, provided a platform to assess the impact of the system, which was launched nearly a year ago.
Women entrepreneurs expressed confidence that the system will enhance their participation in government, local authority, and public utility projects, opening new opportunities for their businesses.
“Transparency and accountability are the key hallmarks of ethical business activities in any economy, Government by introducing the latest digitalised system needs to be commended because it creates a fair playing field in the market, stamps out corruption and boosts the value for money principles.
“Going forward, as women entrepreneurs we need to up our skills in terms of quality goods and services that are on offer to the government or public utilities, by so doing we will be in a position to compete and realise our potential by being awarded the contracts,” Manna Resorts Executive Director, Mrs Joy Mataruka said.
“The key challenge is on the capacity building, while there are more women out there who want to supply the government with goods and services, it is, however, access to modern gadgets under the latest procurement methods that becomes a challenge. If women are capacitated across the country in terms of understanding how it works, operational modalities, and awareness of the digitalised methods, then we are likely to see increased participation otherwise the whole concept is noble as it broadens the scope of businesses to everyone across the country,” Karoi Town Council procurement manager, Ms Vena Manyere said.
“This meeting has been an eye opener by enabling us to see what we can do as women in broadening our share of supplies to the government in a male-dominated procurement system. We take solace from the fact that the modernised system has all that it takes to embrace our operations thereby enabling more women to be the key players in the procurement activities,” Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe Chief Executive Officer, Mr Clever Ruswa said.
Mr Ruswa revealed a rise in female participation following the launch of the Electronic Government Procurement System.
“The whole issue relates to what can be done to modernise the public procurement systems and ensure value for money,” he said.
“Being designed in line with global trends, the system can save the fiscus as much as 30% of total revenue as it stamps out all irregular transactions, facilitates transparency, and accountability, given it is a decentralised system, it means more women can also take part in the system thereby broadening their scope of businesses in the public sector as the government is the biggest buyer in the economy accounting for over 70% of total transactions on goods and services provided by the country’s private sector.
“Today’s engagement is vital as it allows us to interface with the women entrepreneurs, enabling us to identify their concerns and chart the way forward.”
According to PRAZ, the system works by connecting various entities and processes through a centralised plan, removing manual work on procurement-related tasks, exchanging supplier contacts, and filling out supplier on-board questionnaires.
