ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Railways Azam Khan Swati launched a pilot project of the e-procurement system aimed to ensure transparency in the process of awarding contracts in Pakistan Railways (PR).

Swati said this while speaking to participants of a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) inked between Pakistan Railways and Tejari Pakistan as a pilot project in Islamabad.

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He said that according to the good governance and digital Pakistan vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan, the PR has initiated working to make procurement processes transparent, efficient and easy to approach.

When it comes to accountability, transparency, facilities and relief given to people, the government has made pragmatic progress towards e-governance, the minister maintained.

“A launch of the e-procurement system is heartening and encouraging as huge amounts of billions of rupees are involved in projects and routine procurement,” he said adding that the PR will take more fruitful initiatives to revamp financial and administrative matters in days to come.

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After this successful launch,  Pakistan Railways Secretary Habib-ur-Rehman Gilani  said that more public organisations might be encouraged to follow the guidelines and make their procurement budget transparent, and enhance the visibility to notch a 100 per cent audit trail to follow the vision of the PM.

He said that the department has developed a roadmap that would not only make the procurement process transparent but also help save time. He said that the performance would be reviewed on the basis of the use of technology and in this regard practical steps would be taken to utilize the latest technology in affairs of the Pakistan Railways.

“Tejari is a pioneer in e-procurement solutions aimed to serve clients in public and private sectors such as National Highway Authority (NHA), Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL), United Bank Limited (UBL), Punjab Skills Development Fund (PSDF), Orient Petroleum Limited (OPL), Pearl Continental and Marriot hotels,” Tejari Pakistan  general manager Syed Usman Hassan said this while commenting on the accord with the PR.

Officials of both the PR and Tejari Pakistan were present.