This project is part of Evidence-Based Procurement Reforms (EPBR) of the government. It uses IT solutions to prevent leakages in payment processes and thus, increase fiscal space available to the government. The automation of the procurement process (from requesting an item to delivery) and basic accounting and monitoring functions (such as in-office approvals and sanction of funds), has led to improved transparency. The system has helped find gaps in procurement processes in place across different offices and districts. In some cases a difference in price of up to 70% has been found in the purchase of the same item, thus providing policy makers a powerful and useful monitoring mechanism.
Currently, the POPS is in use of four departments: Agriculture, Communications and Works, Health and Higher Education. The PPRA is in process of rolling it out in more departments. Cumulative amount of all bills processed through the system currently stands at about Rs 8.283 billion. A total of 77,385 bills were generated through the system. The system allows departments to process procurement requests from among 82,000 different items commonly used in the public sector.