ISLAMABAD ( WNAM REPORT): The Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) is set to formally launch the upgraded e-Pakistan Acquisition & Disposal System (EPADS 2.0) under the vision of “One Nation, One System.” The achievement reflects the Federal Government’s commitment to modernizing procurement processes, strengthening transparency, and ensuring accountability in public procurement, fully aligned with the Prime Minister’s vision of a Digital Pakistan.
This was stated by Managing Director PPRA, Hasnat Ahmed Qureshi, while speaking to journalists here on Thursday. He was accompanied by the Director General of Legal, PPRA, Muhammad Aslam Waseem, and the Project Director of EPADS, Sheikh Afzaal Raza.
MD PPRA informed that EPADS 2.0 is a more user-friendly, fully upgraded, end‑to‑end procurement and contract management platform developed in‑house to meet international standards and future digital governance requirements. The system facilitates automated supplier registration, beneficial ownership verification, e‑invoicing, digital payments, e-bid submission, system-based bid evaluation, inter‑agency integrations, oversight dashboards, and commitment accounting features to improve financial planning. “EPADS 2.0 represents our vision of ‘One Nation, One System,’ a single unified digital platform that delivers efficiency, accountability, and fiscal discipline while reducing the cost of doing business,” he remarked.
The launch of EPADS 2.0 builds on the success of EPADS 1.0, which processed over Rs. 1.4 trillion worth of transactions in FY 2024–25, with more than 10,000 public sector agencies and 51,000 suppliers registered. Since February 2026, EPADS 2.0 has already been implemented in the Federal Government, and the system has already registered 1,824 procuring agencies and 18,909 vendors. Approximately 7,000 procurements have been completed on EPADS 2.0 since February 2026. The system is fully integrated with FBR, NADRA, SECP, PEC, PRAs, and DRAP, while oversight access has been extended to NAB, CCP, and the Auditor General of Pakistan.
Mr. Qureshi highlighted that owing to the Prime Minister’s keen interest in modernizing the procurement landscape in the country and the swift implementation of EPADS during FY 2024–25, substantial savings of PKR 20.52 billion were made in the administrative costs of procurement, comprising PKR 17.18 billion for procuring agencies and PKR 3.33 billion for vendors. This was achieved through improved efficiency, reduced cost of doing business, and streamlined processes, he added.
Mr. Qureshi also referred to the huge potential of saving in contract cost where procurement is undertaken through EPADS instead of the manual process. He said that only in 04 procurement, an amount of PKR 1.86 billion was saved. These included HEC’s procurement of 100,000 laptops, GEPCO & PESCO combined savings of PKR 105.60 million on energy meters, KP Textbook Board’s procurement of books, reducing costs from PKR 3.39 billion to PKR 2.75 billion, and Federal Directorate of Immunization (FDI) Td vaccine procurement, representing an average saving of 8.29 percent, with potential to reach 10–15 percent.
Alongside digital transformation, PPRA has implemented multi sectoral reforms in alignment with the Reform Roadmap approved by Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif in November 2024, based on a diagnostic review conducted by international experts of the World Bank. Mr. Qureshi highlighted that PPRA has ensured institutional reforms by strengthening its technical and regulatory capacity, bringing in procurement experts and an in-house IT team to develop the e-procurement system, facilitating the establishment of over 200 procurement cells in federal agencies to professionalize procurement operations, establishing a dedicated Project Management Unit for EPADS, a state‑of‑the‑art training lab, and a 16‑hour Help Desk to support implementation
Under the regulatory reform initiative, PPRA ensured amendments to the PPRA Ordinance 2002, prepared a new set of Public Procurement Rules 2025, new regulations such as Minimum Energy Performance Standards Compliance Regulations and Disposal of Public Assets Regulations, 2026. The new Rules mandate e‑procurement and e‑disposal, provide grievance redressal committees, strengthen blacklisting mechanisms, introduce third-party oversight, and propose efficiency measures such as framework agreements and contract management provisions.
Capacity building has remained central to the reform agenda, with 14,752 officials and vendors trained to date, including 7,491 since the launch of EPADS in 2023. Training sessions are being conducted directly by PPRA and in collaboration with leading universities such as LUMS, IBA, NUST, Air University, and COMSATS.
MD PPRA also unveiled the Five‑Year Reform Roadmap (2026–2031), which envisions the nationwide rollout of EPADS 2.0, adoption of the Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS), Monitoring & Evaluation dashboard, MDB-financed procurement module, development of SOEs module, and integration of contract management, development of a National Procurement Strategy, Sustainable Procurement Policy, integration of AI‑based analytics, measurable reduction in non compliance, reducing procurement processing time, and professionalization of procurement officials and vendors.
