GOVERNMENT ELECTRONIC PURCHASING: AN ASSESSMENT OF BRAZILIAN STATE GOVERNMENTS' E-PROCUREMENT WEBSITES

Abstract

One of the electronic government applications that has been fast developing in Brazil is e-procurement. It’s a field that allows relatively objective measuring, regarding price cuts and savings generated by the reduction of bureaucracy. This research evaluated the quality of the e-procurement portals of the 26 Brazilian state governments and also the Federal District, considering primarily features that could be useful to suppliers. In order to do so, a scoring method was developed, in which 39 items were observed and grouped into seven dimensions. On average, the results were satisfactory, but there’s yet a lot to improve – no site reached 80 points, out of 100. In all, 20 states (including the Federal District) have sites with at least a minimum structure, reaching more than 40 points in this evaluation. Only Roraima and Rondônia have no e-procurement sites, while Amapá, Maranhão, Piauí, Rio Grande do Norte and Tocantins have sites that don’t meet minimum quality standards. The results also pointed to meaningful regional differences: the three best-ranked states (Minas Gerais, São Paulo and Espírito Santo) are located in the Southeast region, that had an average score of 75,4. In the other extreme, the North region reached an average of just 30,4 points. These disparities may be due, in part, to the relationship verified between those scores and the Gross Domestic Product of the respective states.