Bills Worth Rs 8.283 Bln Processes By POPS System

A total of 77,385 bills worth Rs 8.283 billion have been generated through the Punjab Online Procurement System (POPS)

LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 09th Feb, 2018 ) :A total of 77,385 bills worth Rs 8.283 billion have been generated through the Punjab Online Procurement System (POPS). It was informed in a meeting chaired by Dr Umar Saif founding Vice Chancellor and Chairman Punjab Information Technology board here on Friday.

The system developed by the PITB, allowed government departments to process procurement requests among 82,000 different items commonly used in public sector. The meeting was further informed that the project was a part of Evidence-Based Procurement Reforms of the government.

It uses solutions to prevent leakages in payment processes and thus, increase fiscal space available to the government. The automation of procurement process (from requesting an item to delivery) and basic accounting and monitoring functions (such as in-office approvals and sanction of funds), had led to improved transparency.

The system had helped find gaps in procurement processes in place across different offices and districts. In some cases a difference in price of up to 70% had been found in the purchase of the same item, thus providing policy makers a useful monitoring mechanism.

Currently, the POPS was being used by four departments including Agriculture, Communications and Works, Health and Higher education departments. The Punjab Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) was in process of rolling it out in more departments.