A total of 77,385 bills have been generated through the Punjab Online Procurement System (POPS) amounting to Rs 8.283 billion. It was informed in a meeting chaired by Dr Umar Saif founding Vice Chancellor and Chairman Punjab Information Technology Board here on Friday. It was further informed that the system developed by PITB allowed departments to process procurement requests from among 82,000 different items commonly used in the public sector.

This project is 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 the procurement process (from requesting an item to delivery) and basic accounting and monitoring functions (such as in-office approvals and sanction of funds), has led to improved transparency.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2018