The Bahian government will trigger a far-reaching transformation in its purchasing and public contracting management processes, with support from resources from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) through the Fiscal Management Modernization Program of the State of Bahia (Profisco II) . The kickoff was given this Tuesday (30), when the state secretaries of Finance, Manoel Vitório, and Administration, Edelvino Góes, signed the service order to begin work on the preparation and implementation of the Strategic Plan for Logistics Processes. Supplies from the State Executive Branch, to be conducted with consultancy hired from the Publix Institute.
Over the next 22 months, the company – which has 20 years of experience in the area of consultancy, research and education – is expected to help project executors map their purchasing and contracting processes, identifying bottlenecks and designing scenarios. with a view to implementing improvement actions. Among the expected gains from the initiative are the definition of governance mechanisms for the management of State purchases and contracting, in addition to the adoption of sustainability practices and rationalization of expenses.
The selection of the consulting company was carried out based on IDB rules, which established technical and price criteria. Budgeted at R$ 2.7 million, the contract was carried out by the Finance Secretariat (Sefaz-BA) through the Coordination of Profisco II, the IDB’s current credit line for financing projects to improve revenue administration and fiscal management of the States. The execution, management and supervision of the contract will be the responsibility of the Administration Secretariat (Saeb).
After this first stage, another R$ 5.2 million also coming from Profisco II will be allocated to hiring the company that will work on specifying the requirements necessary for the development of a new Integrated Logistics System, to replace the current Government Purchasing System of the State (Simpas). The third and final phase of the project will consist of the development and/or customization of the new computerized system.
Quality of spending
“This project will contribute decisively to the evolution of the public spending quality policy in the State of Bahia”, assessed the Secretary of Finance, Manoel Vitório, highlighting that the control of funding expenses in the Bahian public sector, under the responsibility of Sefaz- Ba, has achieved impressive results since 2015 and was already demanding the improvement of purchasing and hiring processes to reach new heights.
Vitório also emphasized the importance of the partnership between the Finance and Administration departments, expanding synergy between systemic bodies that operate respectively in the areas of revenue and expenses. The contribution of these areas, he recalled, is fundamental for more and better services to be offered by the departments that directly serve the population, such as Education, Health, Security and Infrastructure.
RH Bahia is a reference
For the Secretary of Administration, Edelvino Góes, “the development of a new public procurement and contracting system is among the most important items on the State’s scale of priorities in the area of management, in order to replace Simpas with a technological tool with more resources, capable of expanding our systemic capacity to support and manage the processes developed throughout the State Public Administration”. He recalled that the new system will also be designed in accordance with the new bidding and contract law.
Góes also emphasized the benefits of this deepening of the strategic partnership between the Finance and Administration secretariats, and noted that the objective, with the new project, is for the State of Bahia to give its purchasing and contracting area the same level of maturity achieved by the government’s Human Resources system, RH Bahia. “A good system is developed based on good requirements”, he stated, highlighting that the term of reference for preparing RH Bahia is today considered a model for initiatives of its kind across the country.
Maturity
With the initiative, the government’s expectation is to improve the State’s management and purchasing processes, guaranteeing improvements in performance with regard to the degree of maturity of the management of acquisitions and materials, in accordance with the parameters established by the IDB. “The experts’ recommendation made us realize that, in addition to seeking advances in technology, it was necessary to comprehensively rethink our purchasing policy to ensure that we are actually making gains with regards, for example, to agility, quality of deliveries and sustainability”, explains Saeb’s Director of Logistics Support, Geisiane Magalhães.
The director also remembers that the project will contribute to the State of Bahia implementing guidelines set out in Federal Law no. 14,133/2021, which establishes rules for bidding and contracts, mainly regarding the governance and sustainability of public purchases.
For the initial stage of the initiative – building the Strategic Plan – Geisiane reveals that a working group will be created to support Saeb, with representatives from both those bodies that are traditionally the largest buyers in the State, and the Health, Education and Security departments. Public, as well as smaller units and with the most diverse profiles. “Our intention is to collect inputs for the analyses, taking into account the most different realities experienced by the State’s units”, highlights the director.
Attendance
Also participating in the event at the Sefaz-BA office were the undersecretary of Finance, João Aslan, the superintendent of Tax Administration at Sefaz-BA, José Luís Souza, the superintendent of Logistics Resources at Saeb, Liliane Barbosa Brito, and, for Sefaz-BA , the Planning and Management advisor, Sizenando Gonzaga, the Spend Quality director, Manuela Martinez, the Systems and Business Rules Modeling managers, Carlos Maurício Cova, and the Mining and Data Analysis managers, Alfredo Capella Júnior, and the Modernization coordinators, Davi Telles Júnior, and Planning and Budget coordinators, Ângela Aslan.
Source: Ascom/Sefaz-BA
