To ensure efficiency, economy, transparency, fair and equitable treatment of bidders, Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema on Wednesday launched the State Public Procurement Portal (SPPP) — developed by the state Finance Department in collaboration with the National Informatics Centre (NIC).

Launching the portal during the one-day orientation program for State Account Services (SAS) officers, Cheema said that the State Public Procurement Portal has been setup under Section 43 of the Punjab Transparency in Public Procurement Act, 2019 with the aim of improving transparency and accountability in the procurement procedure.

He said that the portal would provide access to the information regarding basic tender details (latest active tender, opening or closing tender and cancelled tender), bidding documents, active corrigendum, act and rules, appeal and its procedures, annual procurement plan, list of bidders who presented bids including during pre-qualification or bidder registration, list of pre-qualified and registered bidders, list of bidders excluded under section 24 with reasons, decisions regarding appeals mandated under section 49 and 50 the act, details of successful bids; their prices and bidders and list of blacklisted bidders.

Highlighting the objectives of the portal, the Finance Minister said that SPPP would also help in promoting competition in the procurement process by providing single point access to the information on procurements across various procuring entities. He said that each procuring entity would ensure the procurement related information to be published on this portal. “All procuring entities would also publish their procurement plans on the portal in the beginning of each financial year”, he added.

Cheema, addressing the SAS officers participating in the orientation program, encouraged them to keep on updating their professional skills by training programs and enhancing their professional qualification. He said that a training policy for SAS officers is under consideration to improve their efficiency of financial management as per the needs of latest IT and other technical advancements. On this occasion he also invited the officers to give their suggestions and feedback regarding the difficulties being faced by them at ground level.