The Punjab PWD (B&R) department has decided to introduce the policy of e-tendering and e-procurement from January 2008 to ensure transparency and accountability in the functioning of department.
Presiding over the meeting of Executive Board of Punjab Roads Bridges Development Board here on Thursday, the PWD (B&R) minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa said that the department has been included in the first phase of computerization by the IT department by introducing e-procurement. The government has decided that from 15th January 2008, all works above Rs 1 crore will be tendered electronically. The IT department was in the process of establishing a suitable platform for these services and this will introduce greater competition and transparency in the public procurement, he added.
Dhindsa said that computerisation of the department was also a part of World Bank-funded Punjab State Road Sector Project, the largest road sector project in the state being implemented by PRBDB. A budget of Rs 15 crores has been kept for computerisation of the project.
According to the minister the department will be fully computerised by June, 2008. These include systems for works management, financial management, personnel management, office automation, messaging, file tracking etc. In addition applications specific to the road sector like GIS-based road information system and road asset management system were also in the process of being rolled out.
The government of Punjab was in the process of rolling out a holistic e-governance strategy for Punjab under which the state is currently in the process of implementing a state wide area network, state data centre and computerized kiosks to provide citizen services. In doing so the IT department will evolve a standard architecture which can be used for all departmental application development so that these can become inter-operable and reusable as and when implemented.