The Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets (PPDA) has commended the positive strides made in rolling out the Malawi National Electronic Procurement System (MANePS), a digital platform designed to boost transparency, efficiency, and accountability in government procurement.
The system, which is now fully operational, has already attracted strong interest from the private sector, with the business community embracing its promise of fairness and openness in awarding government contracts.
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Speaking at a press briefing in Lilongwe on Wednesday, PPDA Director General Dr. Edington Chilapondwa said the system, which is now fully operational, has already registered 50 service providers online, with the business community responding enthusiastically to the innovation.
“It was very interesting to see that indeed the business community of Malawi have started. What we have learned in interacting with the business community is they have put trust in the system that accountability and transparency will be enhanced,” he said.
Chilapondwa explained that the MANePS removes the potential for undue influence by eliminating direct human involvement in most stages of the procurement process.
“People who might have lost business for one reason or the other but probably blaming somebody for the loss of business or failure to do business with the government have welcomed the system because there will be no human interface. They will be able to do the business straight on the platform. And the system will be able to do a selection without human intervention,” he said.
He further noted that MANePS has also earned the attention and trust of other countries, with South Sudan sending a delegation to learn from Malawi’s approach.
Leading the South Sudan team, Mr. Ajang Deng Daniel, Head of the Department for Registration of Providers in that country’s Public Procurement and Disposal and Oversight Authority, said Malawi’s phased migration from e-services to MANePS offers valuable lessons for their own reforms.
“The reason why we chose Malawi is that Malawi has just migrated from e-services to money, in which we are inheriting e-services as South Sudanese. So, for us to start from where they are living, that could be of great learning. And the system that Malawi has, we have similarities, that’s why we opted to be in Malawi,” Daniel said.
During their three-day visit, the South Sudanese delegation engaged with several PPDA departments, including compliance review, capacity development, and finance, to understand the system’s operational success.
Daniel described the benchmarking trip as “a wonderful exercise” and said it will guide their own procurement digitisation process.
Among others, the MANePS platform will allow 32 government departments to utilize their annual budgets fully and on time, ending long-standing delays blamed on cumbersome procurement procedures.
The system also provides accurate records of procurement activities, enabling government to track spending by ministry, department, and supplier type.
Another key feature is the verification of beneficial ownership through integration with the Registrar of Companies, which prevents a single individual from submitting multiple bids under different company names which will ensure fair competition and eliminate the practice of suppliers competing against themselves.
