The third phase of the digital procurement platform was launched

DUBAI – The Ministry of Finance (MoF) has launched the third phase of the Digital Procurement Platform (DPP) in Dubai, with 32 ministries and federal entities starting to deploy the DPP.

This was announced at a forum organized by the ministry in the presence of representatives of government entities and held in conjunction with UAE Innovation Month.

DPP digitizes the procurement process of UAE federal entities, bringing together federal entities and registered suppliers on one platform, and all stages of the procurement process, including announcements, bidding and following up bids, placing purchase orders and generating invoices, can be done online.

Mohammad Hadi Al Husseini, Minister of State, Ministry of Finance, highlighted the importance of the DPP, which aims to improve procurement processes, increase the efficiency of government spending, support entrepreneurs and SMEs, and provide cutting-edge models for government practice, consolidating the UAE’s position in the Global Competitiveness Index.

Al Hussaini said the DPP introduced a new concept of government procurement and flexible procurement policies based on international benchmarks and international best practices.

Mariam Al Amiri, assistant undersecretary at the Ministry of Finance responsible for government financial management, noted that the new platform will help reduce the cost of purchasing goods and services for government entities. DPP offers Spend Reporting, which consolidates all data related to procurement and supplier performance, ensuring the highest level of spend transparency and budgetary 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-to-use user experience and introduces a new concept of government procurement by creating a catalog of goods and services commonly procured by federal entities. Buyers can select products based on pre-contracts with suppliers, add them to carts and submit requests for necessary approvals, helping to reduce procurement process time from 60 days to 6 minutes.

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

SMEs categorize SMEs through the platform to gain exclusive privileges on the DPP to guide government entities and facilitate access to SME products by adding the “SME” logo on the platform. SMEs also earn 10% of their purchases by monitoring their spend percentage annually, and during the evaluation process, add 10% when calculating the SME’s final score. This is in addition to long-term contracts for the provision of services and products to federal entities. Additionally, SMEs are not required to submit a performance bond; instead, the retention amount will be deducted from their initial invoice.

The Ministry of Finance has developed a new procurement policy based on international benchmarks and best practices adopted by leading countries in the field of digital procurement. DPP provides intelligent controls that enable federal entities to extract detailed reports showing all data related to procurement operations and supplier performance, ensuring the highest levels of budgetary transparency, governance and control.

During the forum, the ministry honored representatives of government entities responsible for managing the procurement process through the platform. The most frequently used entities of the 2022 directory were also revealed during the forum.

Energy and Infrastructure came first, the National Advisory Center came second, and the Justice Department came third.

Treasury continues to work to maximize the benefits of the DPP by enhancing the catalog to provide professional services based on best practice and adding new categories to ensure all federal government requirements are met.