The Electronic Community Connection program is a platform that facilitates communication between service providers and those who need their services. This electronic program has been designed to expand the competition process in providing services (in-kind) to civil society organisations specifically, and other similar institutions and organisations. It is expected that this program will contribute to improving the quality of the services provided, developing a larger variety of service providers and reducing their prices. This program also contributes to the institutionalization of procurement processes in various institutions and organisations, uses time more efficiently in purchasing various services and eases the implementation of the procurement process. This program also seeks to expand the partnership and decision-making processes within organisations and enhance its transparency by facilitating internal control and involving various functional levels in monitoring the process of procurement, starting from its design until it is received by the organisations.
This program handles purchases at two levels, as the following:
- The Internal Level:
- The program regulates the flow of purchase orders from the lowest party involved in designing and requesting needs, through the relevant departments until it reaches the level of advanced decision-making, in accordance with the financial and administrative powers in the organisation. The program provides the opportunity for an unlimited number of decision-makers and financial and technical assistants.
- Based on the determination of the financial and administrative ceilings of each institution separately, the program works to automatically control the flow of purchase transactions, in direct and indirect forms, in order to prevent any purchase request that exceeds the financial or administrative limits. Thus, it automatically prevents the implementation of the procurement process, which does not completely fulfill the requirements to receive internal approvals.
- In cases of indirect purchase requests, and based on the database, the program sends the purchase request to the specified database according to the type of service. This means that any service provider listed in the database, according to his/her nature of work, will be aware of the purchase request.
- The program provides the procurement committees with a specific user name and password, which expire at a period determined by the Association.
- The program documents every movement on the system, including the name of the user, in a special tracking log for each user.
- The program also determines the databases to which it will send requests for quotations based on the price ceiling for each purchase. Each organisation sets its financial ceilings in accordance to its financial and administrative manuals, without interference from the program.
- The program issues all purchase requests, according to each organisation’s financial ceilings, on its website econnect.ps.
- The External Level:
- The program's database consists of service providers (individuals, companies and organisations/institutions), which specifies the nature of the services they wish to provide when they submit an online registration application.
- After the online application and necessary documents are submitted, the service provider becomes part of the program’s database, and will receive all notices within the scope of the service that he/ she specified to.
- Each service provider can submit a technical and financial offer for the service that he/she specified to upon registration.
- The program treats every financial and technical offer like a sealed envelope and prohibits its beneficiaries the opportunity to view the offers until after the specified period ends. There is not any opportunity to change the request and the Procurement Committee is assigned by the Association itself.
Security and reliability:
This program’s administration seeks to maximize its security reliability. Therefore, this program has a certificate (), in information security. Please click here to read the details on reliability and privacy.
Fees
The subscription fee for this program is free for civil society organisations (charities), and free for the first year for service providers, including individuals and companies.
Proceeds from the program
Any proceeds obtained from this program shall be first allocated to its development, to the work of the Association developing it and to the work of charitable organisations participating in it. This program does not seek to achieve profit for the purpose of sharing it with individuals or for personal benefits.