Virginia auditor hits state e-procurement system
Virginia’s auditor of public accounts has found that only 1.5 percent of the commonwealth’s purchases so far are flowing through an electronic procurement system and that agencies must dramatically increase their use of it to finance development.
Virginia’s auditor of public accounts has found that only 1.5 percent of the commonwealth’s purchases so far are flowing through an electronic procurement system and that agencies must dramatically increase their use of it to finance development.Virginia’s General Services Department and American Management Systems Inc. of Fairfax, Va., are building the procurement system, known as eVA. The legislature originally planned to finance eVA by levying fees on vendor use, but it dropped those fees in its fiscal 2002 session and required agencies to pay. The vendor fees will resume in fiscal 2004.The auditor’s office said that “increasing agency use of eVA during the next year is critical for generating sufficient future vendor fee revenue to pay AMS.” The office recommended three ways to spur use:
Develop interfaces between agency procurement systems and eVA
Create an interface for small charge card transactions
Improve vendor relations.
The department responded that it had exceeded its goal of $105 million in eVA transactions over the past six months, in fact funneling in $121 million worth of transactions. It said eVA would save money and work with other state systems.
“Admittedly, implementation is a struggle, but agencies are using eVA,” the department said.
The department responded that it had exceeded its goal of $105 million in eVA transactions over the past six months, in fact funneling in $121 million worth of transactions. It said eVA would save money and work with other state systems.
“Admittedly, implementation is a struggle, but agencies are using eVA,” the department said.
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