Paper Title
Adoption of E-procurement Technology-Assured Electronic Bid Process (AEBP): A critical Review on Mauritius Public Sector
Abstract
E-procurement are often part of the country’s larger e-government efforts to better serve its citizens and
businesses in the digital economy. E-procurement value chain consists of indent management, e-Informing, e-Tendering, e-
Auctioning, vendor management, catalogue management, Purchase Order Integration, Order Status, Ship Notice, einvoicing,
e-payment, and contract management. Public sector organizations use e-procurement for contracts to achieve
benefits such as increased efficiency and cost savings (faster and cheaper) in government procurement and improved
transparency (to reduce corruption) in procurement services. E-procurement in the public sector has seen rapid growth in
recent years. Public Procurement in the Mauritius is regulated by the Procurement Policy Office (PPO) which falls under the
Aegis of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning. Procurement Activities for the Mauritian Public Sector is
governed by the Public Procurement Act (2006), Regulations 2008, directives, circulars emanated from PPO and
International Best Practice. With the rapid rise of Business to Business (B2B) transactions over the internet and the
increasing use of e-procurement solutions by many government for purchasing, a secured electronic submission of bids has
become essential in order to ensure an accurate and secure information exchange between the purchasing organization and
the vendors. Security is a consistent and growing problem for e-commerce and procurement solutions. As the number and
frequency of security violations continues to rise, there is a corresponding dependence on information technology to drive
business value, which in turn increases the importance and criticality of transaction data. The result is an increasing demand
for secure e-procurement transactions to ensure the confidentiality, integrity and availability of data. Secure transactions are
essential if organizations are to fully realize the benefits of e-procurement which include increased productivity, lower
purchasing pricing, streamlined processes, reduced order fulfillment time and avoidance of collusion between buyers and
sellers., all of which can contribute to increasing an organization’s competitive advantage.
Keywords - E-Procurement, secured bid process, public sector, electronic submission, purchasing.