Interview Guidelines for Research Thesis

Practitioners: Those procurement practitioners practicing the electronic Venue, Date

procurement system in ministries or any procurement agencies and Time
Name Age Personal Details of the Interviewee NPA
Noor Rahman Sahak 32 F/N: Shamsur Rahman Building,
Call in: +93 791045526 AOP, Kabul,
Position Gender Afghanistan
Email: noor.sahak@aop.gov.af
Specialist Male

First I will give the interviewee the general overview of what I want to do and what do I expect from him/her.

General questions
Can you briefly introduce My name is Noor Rahman Sahak, a 32-year-old civil engineer. A young and enthusiastic
development professional with more than seven years of working experience with
yourself? different national and international organizations. My experience includes monitoring,
construction management, contract management and contracts monitoring.
Qualification
Working history
How long have you been I have been working with the National Procurement Authority (NPA) since August 17,
2016.
working in the field of
Procurement?

How do you describe the
current public
procurement system in
Afghanistan?
Sound and effective public procurement management system always plays a major role in
human societys development, economic growth and socio-political stability in the country.
Through reasonable financial and economic mechanisms and in the light of national
regulatory frameworks as well as global standards, procurement facilitates health,
education and other infrastructural services for citizens, and paves the way for business
development and brighter future for all.

The Government of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan recognizes the key role which public
procurement plays in a country. Based on surveys 19% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
and approximately 50% of National budget is spent through public procurement, therefore
the government took a number of reforms up to provide better pubic services, establish an
effective and transparent procurement system, controlling public expenditure, and
decrease corruption.

The National Procurement Authority (NPA) as a policy maker organization has been
established in accordance with the article 56 of Procurement Law, under Administrative
Office of the President (AOP). The main reason for establishing NPA was to act as semi
centered entity in order to oversight procurement policies and operations in government
entities. It has six directorates and an operations unit. The directorates include, National
Procurement Commission Secretariat (NPCS), Procurement Policy Directorate (PPD),
Procurement Facilitation Directorate (PFD), Contracts Progress Monitoring Directorate,
Strategic Communication and Integrity Directorate, and the Procurement Cadre &
Employee Professional Development Directorate. Along with that, the National
Procurement Commission (NPC) has been established as per the directive of the
enforced procurement laws article no. 54, and consideration of legislative decree no. 75
of the President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. The commission performs its
duties based on a specific rules of procedures which is being set by the procurement law
and it is approved by the NPC itself.
Study related questions

Can you please describe As Afghanistan is using manual procurement system, therefore, it takes too much time for
the both the national and international procurement processes. Even procurement of a
how long a national and single project in Afghanistan from needs assessment till the contract agreement can take
international procurement more than six months.
process takes time?
There are three main steps in processing any procurement which are:
Please explain the steps
involved in the The pre-tendering phase which includes, needs assessment and market analysis,
planning and budgeting, development of specifications/requirements and choices of
processing of any procurement procedures;
procurement method in The tendering phase includes, request for proposals/bids, bid submission, bid
your agencies? evaluation and contract award; and
The post award phase which includes the contract management/performance and the
order and payments.

What do you think, if we With the e-procurement system, the procuring entities can save time as its automated
facility speeds up the internal process in terms of sourcing. Significantly, negotiation and
establish the electronic getting the best price can be completed in just few clicks.
procurement system, will
In an electronic procurement system, bids are placed in one interface, since the process
this help the entities in
is automated, entities dont have to spend so much effort and time when sourcing. The
minimizing time period for whole process is done electronically, so the company can focus on other strategic tasks
processing any and functions of their business. And e-procurement helps lessen the effort or
organizations since it allows easy access to more suppliers, which opens more
procurement methods, if
possibilities and options. Unlike the traditional process, this enables to connect with a
yes please describe it wide-range of suppliers not just locally, but also internationally.
through few examples or
reasons?

Have you ever I have studied the integrated e-procurement system of South Korea, which they called the
Korean Online Electronic Procurement System (KONEPS). In Korea, the implementation
experienced or exposure of a national e-procurement system has brought about a notable improvement in the
any electronic transparency and integrity of public procurement administration. In 2002, Public
procurement system of Procurement Service (PPS), the central procurement agency of Korea, introduced a fully
integrated, end-to-end e-procurement system called KONEPS. This system covers the
any other countries? If entire procurement cycle electronically (including a one-time registration, tendering,
yes, then how do you contracts, inspection and payment) and related documents are exchanged online.
recommend it in the KONEPS links about 140 external systems to share and retrieve any necessary
information, and provide a one-stop service, including automatic collection of bidder's
context of Afghanistan? qualification data, delivery report, e-invoicing and e-payment. It provides information on a
real-time basis.

All public organizations are mandated to publish tenders through KONEPS. In 2012, over
62.7% of Koreas total public procurement (USD 106 billion) was conducted through
KONEPS. According to PPS, the system has boosted efficiency, and significantly reduced
transaction costs. In addition, the system has increased participation in public tenders and
has considerably improved transparency, eliminating instances of corruption by
preventing illegal practices and collusive acts.

What do you think how For medium and large scale industries, procuring materials has always been a large scale
operation. When it comes to procuring goods and services, the traditional business route
the electronic is to order in bulk. From the manufacturing point of view, this helps save on cost per unit
procurement can help of output as the scale of the order is increased. Customers also benefit due to the same
procurement entities in reason, as placing a large order gives them the leverage to negotiate for low prices. How
would online procurement then affect what is already a profitable exercise as far as mass
economy of scale and procurement of materials is concerned?
ensuring transparency in
the procurement The underlying principle of automating the supply chain command is to not only reap the
benefits of ordering supplies on a large scale but also bank on the operational efficiencies
processes? that will eventually help both the buyer and the seller.

Economies of Scale call for increased operational capabilities with increasing size.
Manual division of labor earlier helped meet these challenges sufficiently, but with a less
than beneficial return of investment (ROI). The reason being, the profit margins with bulk
procurement were dented significantly due to increased labor requirements on the
manufacturing side. These added labor costs would also reflect in the overall cost to the
customer. However, today, with automation of production lines, the number of steps in the
production cycle is more or less the same and rarely changes with increased production.
For most manufacturing facilities today, the labor requirements are not influenced
significantly by large scale orders because the processes are automated. Therefore,
attempting to increase economies by increasing the scale of production is a futile
operation.

The crucial aspect of adopting online procurement is to improve the flow of service from
the time the order is placed to its eventual delivery to the customer. Online procurement
has the advantage of converting impending running costs (operational costs) into fixed
costs. This allows the suppliers (sellers) to reduce per unit costs when manufacturing
goods on a large scale. Online procurement also helps buyers keep a tab on existing
suppliers and necessitate bids among them. This reflects on the buyers ability to procure
goods and services at the best possible rates from competent manufacturers. In a
nutshell, one could acquire the best deals at the best prices without compromising on
quality.

What do you think what Implementation of e-purchasing (and e-reverse auctions, applicable at e-purchasing) is
more difficult and expensive for suppliers and for Government, even though it deals with
are the main challenges lower valued purchasing than e-tendering. E-purchasing requires much greater
to be addressed before connectivity of businesses and entails extra expenses for businesses to develop and
implementation of the maintain online catalogues. Difficulties are increased where infrastructure is weak,
especially for reverse auctions. E-purchasing systems for Government have a greater
electronic procurement training component and are more expensive to implement than e-tendering systems.
system? Along with that the cost of software and licensing for the businesses can run from
$200,000 to $4,000,000 depending on the size of the organization.

Do you think the For sure, using electronic procurement system can yield significant cost reductions for
organizations and thus more bidders can be able to participate in the bidding process.
electronic procurement Individual business activities (transactions) can be completed much more quickly; they
system will increase are not restricted by office hours and may not even need human intervention, thus
competition? If yes increasing the capacity to complete transactions on a real-time basis. This means that
downstream processes are not constrained by waiting for transactions to be completed
please describe through and more bidders will participate in bidding process. As the e-procurement system is web-
examples? based, therefore buyers can search suppliers worldwide, meaning a wider selection of
products and services are available to the organization meaning that when items are not
available locally, it is still possible to source these. It is important to remember the time
and cost of shipping goods, but its great to know that it is possible to source items from
somewhere in the world. The e-procurement system can help deliver efficiency savings,
cut budget spend, become more transparent and engage with suppliers more effectively.
The e-procurement provides a number of tools and resources to streamline your
procurement methods, which gives you more flexibility at every stage of the tendering
process. Increases the size of your supplier pool and standardizes the information held
about each one so better comparisons can be made of their credentials and services.
How do you compare Additionally, e-procurement is a more efficient way to manage contracts online as it can
be used to make sure that all of your organizations contracts comply with relevant
contract management policies. Standardizing your processes through e-procurement methods will also cut down
and recording system of on avoidable administrative errors which can occur with paper-based methods.
manual and electronic
procurement? In your
opinion which one is
good in keeping accurate
record and why?

What specific There are some business modules to be designed while establishing electronic
procurement system, they include: the electronic bidding, electronic evaluation, electronic
procurement reverse auction, vendor classification system, electronic catalogue, electronic
methods/Processes do specification, and electronic purchasing.
you think can be cover
under electronic
procurement?

Do you think the It is a common practice that in some extent most of the procuring entities and employees
are resistant against the new and unknown changes and policies, specially the electronic
electronic procurement procurement. Obviously criminal patronage network and officials might be against the new
processes will be faced changes. Along with that, the senior employees who are less familiar with new technology
with resistance? Specify also show their resistance against the electronic procurement system.

the sources who will

show resistance?

Do you think we can Yeah, the e-Mall or the electronic shopping mall enables a multi-vendor checkout system,
which enable retailers to sell in one portal. As well, the e-mall offer a wide variety of
create shopping mall products for the procuring entities. It also helps the product registration, product list
through electronic inquiry and product search. At the start, it would be a little difficult to register the
procurement in suppliers/vendors because this is however a new experience in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan? Please
provide your
suggestions?

What do you think which Of course the electronic, because advertising and publishing can only be possible through
the electronic web portal. Along with that publishing government contracts through the
of the systems is helpful data standard is only the first step in the open contracting. Using this data to analyze and
in sharing information monitor public procurement is equally important. Publishing and using structured and
with public considering standardized information about public contracting can help stakeholders to:

the open contracting Deliver better value for money for governments;
partnership? Electronic or Create fairer competition and a level playing field for business, especially smaller
manual? firms;
Driver higher-quality goods, works and services for citizens;
Please provide your Prevent fraud and corruption; and
Promote smarter analysis and better solution for public problems.
suggestions
This public access to open contracting data builds trust and ensures that the trillions of
dollars spent by governments results in better services, goods and infrastructure projects.
What do you think how One function of the e-procurement system is to have a well-established electronic
catalogue system, which can help organizations in having:
electronic procurement
will help the entities in Established unified product classification system;
catalogue and Collection, analysis and classification of product information for digitization and
cataloguing;
specifications? Do you Establishing a comprehensive and systematic product information database and
have any idea? Please enabling its efficient management and use;
provide your suggestions Products owned by central and local government entities;
Confer a commodity title to be commonly used for specific products;
Describe product attributes for distinction from other products, to enable unique
identification; and
Confer one identification number per one product.

The development of electronic catalogues has enabled organizations to market their

product/service offer electronically, this has been a fantastic marketing tool for both the
buyers and sellers. There is always price transparency (you can easily see how much
items cost) and buyers can compare offers from various electronic catalogue vendors.

Along with that, when common items that have similar usage are needed frequently or
repetitively, standard specifications are developed. This established performance and
quality levels, reduces the variety of things bought, simplifies inventories, allows for large
volume contracts to be developed, and eliminates duplicative specification writing. Most
statewide contracts use standard specifications to describe product required. The
standard specification details the characteristics that the item must possess without
naming a brand or model. Such items like stationery or IT equipment are widely used at
governmental entities.

Do you think electronic

procurement can create
unemployment or it will
help the procurement
process to be more
effective? Please provide
your suggestions

Do you think we can Considering the current situation of Afghanistan, a central electronic procurement system
would be very effective. Because, centralized procurement assures accountability and
implement the electronic consistency in implementing procurement policy, and provides maximum competition.
procurement in remote Centralization of procurement function in some fashion is essential for the attainment of
areas? Please provide operating efficiency and maximizing the value of money.

your opinion?