DUBAI – The Ministry of Finance (MoF) launched the third phase of the Digital Procurement Platform (DPP) in Dubai, and 32 ministries and federal entities started deploying the DPP.

This was announced during a forum that the ministry organised, in the presence of representatives from the government entities and in tandem with the UAE Innovation Month.

The DPP digitalises the procurement process across the UAE federal entities, bringing together the federal entities and registered suppliers on a single platform, where all the stages of the procurement process including announcement, bidding and following up on tenders, placing purchase orders, and generating invoices, can be completed online.

Mohamed Hadi Al Hussaini, Minister of State for Financial Affairs, emphasised the significance of the DPP, which aims to improve procurement processes, enhance government spending efficiency, support entrepreneurs and SMEs, and provide a cutting-edge model for government practices, cementing the UAE’s position on global competitiveness indices.

Al Hussaini stated that the DPP introduces a new concept of government procurement and a flexible procurement policy based on international benchmarking and international best practices.

Mariam Al Amiri, Assistant Undersecretary for Government Financial Management Sector at MoF, noted that the new platform contributes to reducing the cost of goods and services purchased by government entities. The DPP offers a ‘spending report’ feature that integrates all data related to procurement and supplier performance, ensuring the highest levels of spending transparency and budget control. The Ministry of Finance held more than 200 interactive workshops and training sessions to test user acceptance and discuss ideas for designing the platform.

The DPP provides an easy and simple user experience and introduces a new concept of government procurement by creating a catalogue of the commonly procured goods and services by the federal entities. Buyers can choose the product based on a pre-contract with the supplier, add it to the shopping cart and submit their request to obtain the necessary approvals, helping to reduce procurement process time from 60 days to six minutes.

Local businesses, international businesses, free zone companies, national SMEs, freelancers, and SANAA Productive families can register as federal suppliers for free.

SMEs get exclusive privileges on the DPP by classifying SMEs through the platform in order to direct government entities and facilitate access to SMEs products by adding the ‘SMEs’ logo to the platform. SMEs also get 10 percent of purchases by monitoring their spending percentage on an annual basis, and during the evaluation process, 10 percent is added while calculating the final score for SMEs. This is in addition to long-term contracts to supply services and products to federal entities. Moreover, SMEs are exempted from submitting a Performance Bond; instead, a retention amount will be deducted from their initial invoices.

The Ministry of Finance developed a new procurement policy based on international benchmarking and best practices adopted by leading countries in the field of digital procurement. The DPP provides smart control features and enables federal entities to extract detailed reports that display all data related to procurement operations and supplier performance, ensuring the highest levels of budget transparency, governance, and control.

During the forum, the ministry honoured representatives of the government entities charged with managing procurement processes through the platform. The entities that utilised the catalogue the most frequently in 2022 were also disclosed during the forum.

The Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure came in the first place, the National Counselling Center came in second place, and the Ministry of Justice ranked third.

The Ministry of Finance continues to work to achieve maximum benefit from the DPP by enhancing the catalogue to offer specialised services in accordance with best practices, and adding new categories to ensure the provision of all requirements of the federal government.