EPADS 2.0: where procurement meets digital governance

Pakistan’s public procurement system has quietly crossed an important threshold over the past year, with the e-Pak Acquisition and Disposal System evolving from a platform for electronic tendering into one within which the procurement process itself is now being built. Developing such a system in-house and rolling it out across the entire federal government is no small undertaking.

The difference between the first version of EPADS and EPADS 2.0 is fundamental rather than cosmetic. Under the earlier model, specifications, eligibility conditions, evaluation criteria and price schedules were still prepared manually and only then uploaded onto the portal, which meant that while the transaction had become electronic, much of the procurement behind it remained a paper-based exercise.

EPADS 2.0 has changed this relationship by allowing a procurement to be constructed progressively within the system, beginning with its nature, estimated cost, method and key dates, and then moving on to schedules of items, quantities, specifications and delivery terms, with competition structured item-wise, lot-wise or for the requirement as a whole.

• Procurement is the end-to-end strategic process of identifying needs, sourcing, negotiating, and acquiring goods, services, or works from external suppliers.

Bidders encounter the same structure from the other side, quoting rates against defined items while the system performs the calculations, so that what once moved between bidding documents, spreadsheets and comparative statements is steadily being converted into structured procurement data.

More significantly, standard bidding documents and procurement structures are now embedded within the workflow itself, with options such as Bid Security or Bid Securing Declaration incorporated according to the applicable requirements. If the first generation of EPADS had digitised procurement documents, it would be fair to say that EPADS 2.0 has begun to digitise procurement compliance.

The same philosophy carries over into technical evaluation, where committees no longer have to search through hundreds of pages of registrations, certificates and work orders to determine whether a requirement has been met. Requirements are instead defined criterion by criterion, bidders upload evidence against each of them, and committee members review submissions through their own accounts, recording their assessments and, where a marking methodology applies, assigning marks that the system then consolidates. The result is a clear digital link between the requirement, the evidence submitted, the evaluation performed and the final decision, which together form the foundation of a genuine audit trail.

Perhaps the most visible transformation, however, has taken place in the supplier market, where traditional procurement imposed hidden costs on participation that had little to do with the price of bidding documents. Information had to reach potential suppliers, documents had to be collected and bids had to be physically delivered, so that geography alone could restrict competition before evaluation had even begun.

By the end of September 2026, the EPADS dashboard reflected 3,410 procuring agencies and 34,698 registered vendors, with an average of 4.56 bidders per procurement activity, and in one striking instance a single Request for Quotation attracted as many as 118 quotations. While a larger number of bids does not by itself guarantee value for money, a supplier located hundreds of kilometres away can now discover an opportunity, examine its requirements and participate on equal terms, which considerably widens the competitive field available to the public purchaser.

Transparency, meanwhile, has been extended well beyond the submission of bids, as clarifications, evaluation information and grievances increasingly flow through a traceable electronic workflow rather than scattered letters and emails. By the end of September, 1,097 grievances had been recorded, of which 931 had been redressed, 22 were in progress and 144 awaited review, with an average redressal time of 46.9 days.

The reform is further strengthened by EPADS being progressively connected with government and regulatory databases, with procurement data made available to oversight institutions including the National Accountability Bureau, the Competition Commission of Pakistan and the Auditor General of Pakistan.

This may well prove to be its most consequential dimension, since public-sector audit has traditionally meant reconstructing, months after the fact, what took place in a file, whereas structured data makes it possible to identify patterns across thousands of transactions, such as repeated purchases just below thresholds, persistently weak competition, unusually prolonged evaluations or concentrations of awards. The auditor’s role would not disappear in such an environment; it would simply become sharper and more focused on transactions that display genuine indicators of risk.

The economic impact of this shift is already becoming apparent, with transactions worth approximately Rs1.4 trillion processed through EPADS during FY2024-25 and PPRA estimating administrative savings of around Rs20.52 billion through greater efficiency and a reduced cost of doing business.

Equal credit is due for the manner in which the system has been implemented on the ground. PPRA has invested considerable effort in training procuring agencies, master trainers and vendors, going well beyond navigation of the portal to cover procurement planning, evaluation methodologies and grievance handling.

None of this is to suggest that the work is complete. The contract management module is still under development, and once integrated it will extend the digital trail from planning and award into actual delivery, thereby closing one of the most important gaps in the procurement lifecycle, since a transparent award followed by weak contract management cannot produce good public procurement.

Integrations will also need to deepen, data quality will need to improve, and users will require continued support, while it must be remembered that technology cannot substitute for professional judgement, as a poorly drafted specification remains poor even when entered into a portal.

Looking further ahead, the larger ambition lies in PPRA’s vision of ‘One Nation, One System’. EPADS 2.0 is already operational across the federal government, its rollout is progressing in Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir; Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh are part of the broader transition, and Punjab has developed its own e-procurement system.

The real objective, therefore, is not identical software for every procuring entity but one connected ecosystem in which systems can communicate, common standards can evolve and procurement data can offer a complete national picture of how public money is spent.

Public procurement is where government budgets translate into tangible outcomes, from roads and medicines to equipment and essential services. Weaknesses in the procurement process therefore have far-reaching implications across government, while improvements can deliver equally widespread benefits.

In that sense, the journey is no longer simply from paper procurement to e-procurement; it is from e-procurement to genuine digital procurement governance.

The article does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Business Recorder or its owners.