Gyeonggi-do Saves 180 Million KRW Budget by Self-Bidding for Work PCs

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Gyeonggi Province announced that it saved about 180 million KRW in budget by promoting bulk purchases of office PCs through its own bidding process instead of using the Public Procurement Service's 'Nara Market'.

This was the result of promoting in-house purchasing as a pilot project ahead of establishing its own 'Fair Procurement System'.

Since January this year, the province conducted a bulk bidding for 505 office PCs and 481 monitors needed by 72 departments. Previously, purchases were made by each department using the Public Procurement Service's 'Nara Market'.

The total amount awarded through the bulk bidding was about 440 million KRW, which is a 71% bid rate compared to the initial budget of 630 million KRW.

This bid rate is 9 percentage points lower than the 80% bid rate for office PCs used by other local governments using Nara Market.

Compared to the initial purchase budget, this saved about 180 million KRW. Additionally, procurement fees of 3.4 million KRW (0.54%) were also saved.

An official from the province said, "The effect of in-house purchasing was greater than expected, such as being able to purchase additional office PCs with the budget savings," and added, "We plan to continue promoting bulk purchases for budget savings and efficient work execution."

Gyeonggi Province is promoting the development of its own procurement system to replace Nara Market, which monopolizes the public goods procurement market, resulting in high prices and unfair distribution of fees.

The feasibility study and basic design service are scheduled to be completed by August, followed by application for approval from the Public Procurement Service and detailed design, aiming for pilot operation next year.