An international tendering process launched by the Government of Honduras, awarded VORTAL the implementation of its technology on a new version of HonduCompras. The process aimed to replace Honduras’s non-integrated systems and manual processes with VORTAL’s technology, in order to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the procurement system.
This project entirely made by VORTAL with a team in-situ supported by their software factory that provided services from the headquarters. The implementation started in March and was live in November 2018, as planned. The contract integrates the needed support and will last for 24 months. The total amount delivered for the project was USD 1.339.568.
On the 16th of May, Corporación de la Cuenta del Desafío del Milenio and Oficina Normativa de Contratación y Adquisiciones del Estado (ONCAE), publicly presented the platform implemented and developed by VORTAL, HonduCompras 2.0; a public consultation tool that gives access to all the information on purchases and contracts made by the State, allowing the automation of all stages of procurement processes and contracts.
HonduCompras 2.0 was launched to merge all the procurement processes into a single information system for the management of every procurement procedures attached to the Government. The tool ensures the needed transparency, aligning the Honduras’ regulatory framework. In addition, the Government can save money in the provision of public services, to improve them and to reduce corruption: a process of institutional strengthening.
“The Government of President Juan Orlando Hernández made the decision to modernize its purchasing system, since one of the main axes of this management is the transparency of public purchases. Also, it is important that we are aware that this is one of the main engines of a government to implement its strategies and policies “, says Alfredo Cantero, member of the Presidential Commissioner of Transparency.
Through the institutional strengthening of the State Contracting and Acquisition Regulation Office and the Government’s use of state-of-the-art technological tools, such as HonduCompras 2.0 from VORTAL, the Government of Honduras has committed to streamline the purchasing and contracting processes, making them more transparent, improving the access and use of public information in Honduras, and the efficient use of public resources.
One of the advantages of the HonduCompras 2.0 System is that it has been designed for the entire budgetary management of the Government. That is, from the planning to the moment of the purchase. In the future, it will have modules to manage contracts. This mean every stakeholders, civil servants, civil society, private company and supplier of the State, will be able to verify if the purchases of the State respond to the budget for every year.
“The HonduCompras 2.0 System is a friendly, dynamic and cutting-edge platform in Latin America. It can publish procurement plans, and these can be reviewed by both national and foreign public, which increases the publicity and transparency of the processes. Furthermore, it complies with the principles of transparency, publicity, efficiency, equality and free competition.” , declares Karla Barahona, Certified Public Buyer.
Santiago Herrera, Economic Policy Manager of COHEP, indicates that HonduCompras 2.0 contributes to transparency. As an open system, it allows information to flow: suppliers are informed, they participate in a competitive manner, there is no room for discretion, avoiding a mechanism of corruption. “Open information makes governments open and, clearly, that complies with the initiative of open government, efficiency, transparency, citizen participation and accountability.”
The Threshold Program has accompanied this initiative of the Government in order to promote the efficiency and transparency of public financial management and the institutional strengthening of ONCAE as the governing body of government procurement and contracting.
The launch of the platform was attended by Jonh Wingle, Director of Corporación de la Cuenta del Desafío del Milenio for projects in Honduras and Guatemala; Sofía Romero, Director of ONCAE, Marco Bográn, Executive Director of Strategic Investment of Honduras (INVEST -Honduras) and Evelyn Bautista, Director of the Threshold Program.