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Developer of government’s e-procurement site issued deadline to expand platform
View(s):The developer of the government’s e-procurement portal has been issued a strict October 2025 deadline by the Cabinet of Ministers – its second extension – to expand the platform to accommodate large-scale international and national competitive bidding (ICB and NCB) projects.
Promise.lk, the electronic government procurement (e-GP) system, is a major International Monetary Fund (IMF) structural benchmark aimed at improving transparency, accountability and efficiency.
But the platform continues to attract only shopping tenders, falling short of the objective of opening up high-value projects to scrutiny and thereby minimising corruption. Recent bids advertised include overalls, stationery, air conditioners and laptops.
Several Finance Ministry circulars have been issued requiring the adoption of the e-GP system. The last, published on August 13 this year, points out that it is mandatory for public entities to publish all procurement contracts exceeding Rs 200mn on the portal. This is critical to ensure fair practices while also being a requirement under Sri Lanka’s IMF programme, it states.
However, the website’s developer – hired in 2019 as a direct contract and not on a competitive tender – has faced challenges in meeting its targets, Finance Ministry sources said, adding that it has been instructed to “expedite the remaining modules of promise.lk” – failing which the ministry will look at getting a new developer to complete the project.
There is no intention to shut down the portal at any cost, they added. The current contract is worth around Rs 176mn, of which around Rs 35mn has been disbursed. This, the sources said, was commensurate with the quantity of work done thus far by the developer.
Failure of the current developer to deliver the remaining modules to the acceptable standards has remained the biggest obstacle to roll out the more important modules of the e-GP platform, they maintained. Thirteen consultants have also been hired with World Bank grant assistance to carry out the initiative.
Some of the delivered components were not acceptable to the quality assurance team, with bugs having to be cleaned up, the sources elaborated. By now, it has become a necessity for the platform to be able to accommodate important ICB and NCB projects without further delay, they said.
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