By Joseph Muhozi, Iringa

Deputy Minister of State in the President's Office, Public Service Management, and Good Governance, Ridhiwani Kikwete, has lauded the impressive usefulness of Tanzania's National e-Procurement System (NeST), saying it is poised to influence positively efforts towards good governance in the public sector, TPJ can report.

Kikwete expressed those sentiments during his recent visit to the NeST task force camp in Iringa, accompanied by the Director General of e-Government Authority, Eng. Benedict Ndomba.

Following a session of presentation on the new system by PPRA Director of Information Systems, Michael Moshiro, the deputy minister said as his office was committed to supporting systems and processes that enhance good governance, he was delighted that NeST appeared destined to contribute effectively in ensuring transparency and accountability while curtailing malpractices in the country’s public procurement system.

“You cannot have good governance if your systems are not good enough to deter officers who are always eager to engage in misconduct, and this system is poised to being a formidable deterrent to such people,” Kikwete said and went on to highlight the necessity of integrating more government systems with NeST to facilitate the acquisition of accurate information for monitoring the public procurement sector.

“All major spenders with systems that possess information essential for public procurement processes should be integrated with NeST, and appropriate directives will be issued by the ministry to those entities,” he said.

TPJ understands that currently, NeST is successfully integrated with a total of 16 government systems thereby obtaining crucial information that facilitates public procurement.

“Therefore, with this system, among other benefits, unfair awarding of contract will be addressed automatically, and every player will be held accountable,’ he said.

In addition, the deputy minister reminded the NeST task force about the system's sensitivity, urging them to maintain their patriotic spirit for the national interest.

“You are doing a great job here. Building systems like NeST requires dedicated and patriotic individuals. I believe in this team, however, I should keep reminding you that you are dealing with a very sensitive system. The government has put its trust in you, and we expect the best,” he said.