BY KWANELE TSABEDZE
MBABANE – Eswatini continues to source and leverage support from more advanced foreign countries in the strides towards first-world status.
The latest development has been the implementation of the public finance management e-governance and e-procurement system in the country. The public finance reforms are being supported by the Rwanda Corporation Initiative by the Government of Rwanda.
Stakeholders held an information sharing session at the Eswatini Revenue Services headquarters in Ezulwini yesterday, to deliberate on the implementation of the systems.
“The benefits of the implementation of the electronic procurement system is that it will increase transparency, accountability, and competition in public procurement,” noted the Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Finance SIzakele Dlamini when addressing stakeholders at the information session.
“Just as an example, we are targeting to reduce the procurement lead time from 100 days to 57 days. We all know that people are complaining that Government processes take too long, red tape and all that, but we are hoping and are confident that we will reduce the lead time,” continued the PS in the Ministry of FInance.
“We intend to achieve greater transparency as tender documents and disclosure of contracts will now have to be disclosed publicly,” added the PS.
Representing the Rwanda Corporation Initiative was their head, Rosin Unujere who attested to the benefits of similar systems in their country.
“Our nations have long recognised the significance of cooperation, and it is through such partnerships that we can achieve remarkable progress. In Rwanda, we have personally witnessed the transformative power of such initiatives, such as the integrated financial management information system, and the electronic government procurement (ETP) system,” said the Head of the Rwanda Corporation Initiative.
