Procurement is regarded as a vital tool for meeting government needs for goods, services and works (Yano & Nondi 2018:292) and for potentially creating opportunities for savings and economies of scales (Gurria 2016:3; Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development [OECD] 2019:3). As public procurement uses a significant proportion of public funds, it is vital that procurement processes to be transparent and well managed to ensure high-quality service delivery to citizenry (OECD 2017).

According to Gabela and Okeke-Uzodike (2020:639), public procurement is a component of supply chain management (SCM) that focuses on the sourcing and purchase of goods, works and services in the public sector. In South Africa, the National Treasury and the Office of the Chief Procurement Officer (OCPO) compel government departments to follow procurement processes and regulations in order to achieve procurement performance in the supply value chain (National Treasury 2015c). As public sector efficiency is accomplished through a streamlined procurement function, the quest for effective and efficient procurement has been raging since the introduction of e-procurement.

The procurement function is transitioning from traditional paper-based approaches to e-procurement as a result of the growing use of the Internet (Bartai & Kimutai 2018:45; Boakye et al. 2019:67). E-procurement, as opposed to paper-based methods, is the automation of the procurement of goods, works and services using information technology (IT) based communication and processing. E-procurement is defined by Croom and Brandon-Jones (2005:369) and Masudin et al. (2021:1) as the use of ICT to carry out a portion or the complete procurement process. The goal of e-procurement is to keep all public entities’ procurement systems streamlined (Ahmed 2018:14) and cost efficient. It also aims to minimise direct human involvement affecting procurement processes between suppliers and procurement officials, which is the most common source of corruption in public procurement (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime 2013:27). Information and communication technology-enabled technologies like e-procurement have emerged as an important tool for reducing the risk of corruption in public procurement processes (Mohungoo et al. 2020:47). Consistent with this view, Chen et al. (2021:4) state that e-procurement lowers mistakes in the provision of goods, works and services, as well as accounting errors and provides speedier payment processes and less bureaucratic procedures. According to Kusi et al. (2016:634), government departments may only use e-procurement to minimise administrative and operational costs if business processes are optimised. In comparison to paper-based procurement, e-procurement is regarded as a standard, secure and trustworthy global communication technology (Kramer 2016:1).

All areas of procurement, including selection, bidding, payment and inventory management, might benefit from an Internet-based procurement process such as e-procurement (Tonkin 2003:7). E-procurement solutions enable to meet a variety of public sector procurement objectives (e.g. efficiency, often referred to as value for money; accountability; transparency and openness; integrity; equal opportunities; fair treatment of service providers; fostering job creation; promoting employment of disabled individuals, just to name these) by reducing administrative costs for both government and business while also increasing monitoring of procurement trends, contracts and price (National Treasury 2016:6).

The adoption of new technology systems has significantly altered the aims of the public sector, and e-procurement could not have come at a better time to connect government departments and suppliers through an online platform that automates the whole public procurement process (Mahmood 2013:120). A goal of e-procurement, according to Ahmed (2018:14), is to increase efficiency and transparency in public procurement by creating a comprehensive e-procurement system that would be used by all departments in government. In reference to this goal, it is important to note that in South Africa government departments and constitutional institutions are under the authority, and custodianship of the National Treasury in so far as systems such as e-procurement is concerned.

The use of e-procurement is necessitated by the need to address the many problems linked with the traditional paper-based procurement method (Ofori & Fuseini 2020:30). At the same time, e-procurement is not a panacea to all of the problems associated with manual procurement processes because it has its own set of challenges that may impede the optimal achievement of the desired procurement goals (Kramer 2016:17; Sithole 2017:42). However, the advantages of e-procurement outweigh the disadvantages, and it is a viable solution for reforming public procurement while maintaining its integrity (Maepa 2022:32).

The procurement literature gives a thorough description of all the benefits of adopting an e-procurement system for both private and public sectors (Belisari, Appolloni & Cerruti 2019:221). The use of e-procurement technology is expected to modernise government procurement and enable the government to:

One of the OCPO’s initiatives is the eTender Publications Portal, which provides access to information on all public sector tenders (National Treasury 2016:7). The eTender publication platform seeks to streamline the procurement process, as well as to increase possibilities for South African businesses to locate and compete for government bidding opportunities (National Treasury 2015).

With the launch of eTender, tender advertisements in newspapers and the government gazette have been phased out (Nene 2015:17). Consequently, government-procuring entities have saved money by reducing the need to print bid documents (National Treasury 2016:7). Nonetheless, the sale of bidding documents remains an impediment to potential suppliers getting information about advertised tenders (National Treasury 2015). Some governmental entities have been seen to sell bidding documents, and bidders are forced to purchase the documents in order to get tender information such as specifications and terms of reference.

The eTender has promoted fairness and opened up competition by ensuring that suppliers have access to the same information at all times. Simply allowing potential bidders to be alerted of announced, cancelled and awarded bids by visiting the portal, eTender has decreased the distance and/or location barrier.

The CSD is also a part of the OCPO’s initiatives, which is a single database that serves as the repository for all government supplier records (Statistics South Africa 2017). Since its inception, the CSD has had a supplier’s register with the goal of providing unified, accurate, up-to-date, full and verified supplier information. By minimising duplication of registration of suppliers at various public entities, the government has saved millions of South African Rands (National Treasury 2016:7). New potential suppliers interested in doing business with the government must register with the National Treasury once and are urged to use the CSD’s website’s streamlined self-registration feature (Nene 2015:17). The initiatives and measures proposed by the government aim to increase SCM performance while reducing operating costs related to the procurement system and software infrastructure maintenance of the database of each government department.

The CSD lacks some capabilities as supplier rotation is not included as it is the responsibility of each department or public entity to establish supplier rotation policy to ensure fairness, openness and compliance (Mpehle & Mudogwa 2020:7). Because there is no mechanism in place to rotate suppliers, procurement officials may choose to rotate their favourite (preferred) suppliers for personal benefit, which will have an impact on service delivery (Zitha, Sebola & Mamabolo 2016:67).

The South African government has been working to restore the lost integrity of SCM, as well as to improve and streamline procurement in the public sector, through the use of electronic features into procurement processes. According to Kramer (2016:6), South Africa’s e-procurement system has succeeded in modernising the outdated public procurement system through the introduction of electronic communication channels between government-procuring entities and potential suppliers.

The readiness to adopt e-procurement results in the automation and streamlining of procurement processes, reducing the time and cost of doing business for both the government and suppliers. Because of greater competition, e-procurement adoption readiness leads to better value for money spent, equal opportunity for all suppliers and eventually eliminates corruption (Oppong 2020:26). In order to determine e-procurement readiness, government departments need to consider e-procurement environments: the operational environment, legal environment, economic environment, organisational environment and technological environment (Australia Department of Finance and Administration 2005:2; Orina 2013:10).

In the operating environment, the government should examine factors such as procurement structures, e-procurement support levels and the drivers of e-procurement adoption. With regard to the legal environment, the government needs to assess readiness by taking into account local, national and international regulations and laws. The economic environment has an impact on both the buyer and the supplier, who should cover the costs of setting up and managing the e-procurement system. The organisational environment is centred on the anticipated degree of adoption. With regard to the technological environment, the government needs to focus on the necessary infrastructure at all levels in order to properly administer the e-procurement system.

This study adopted a descriptive research design. A descriptive research design refers to the collection of data that accurately portrays the characteristics of a topic of interest (Thomas 2021:59). Probability cluster sampling was used to realise a sample size of 113 respondents, as shown in Table 1. These respondents were procurement officials from various levels of management (i.e. low, middle and senior management service) in South African national government departments (Department of Mineral Resources and Energy, DMRE; Department of Health, DOH; Department of Home Affairs, DHA; Department of Small Business Development, DSBD and Department of Tourism, DOT). The sample units comprised five identified national government departments from South Africa’s ministerial clusters: economic sectors, investment, employment and infrastructure development; social protection, community and human development; governance, state capacity and institutional development; justice, crime prevention, and security and international cooperation, trade and security. These five national government departments were selected to provide a comprehensive understanding about readiness factors affecting e-procurement adoption in South Africa.

A self-administered online survey questionnaire was used to collect data. The online questionnaire was built via Survey Monkey platform, which has emerged as a commonly used tool for respondent invitation and/or recruitment as well as data collection in quantitative research (McDaniel & Gates 2015:297). It was linked to email addresses of public procurement officials obtained from a database of a consulting company contracted to manage the online survey questionnaire. The questionnaire was an adapted measuring instrument employed in similar studies to ensure contextual suitability and avoid bias, as recommended by Malhotra, Nunan and Birks (2017:328). It comprised questions relative to demographic aspects as well as factors influencing e-procurement readiness in South Africa’s government departments. To measure e-procurement readiness constructs, a five-point Likert scale was used, ranging from 5 ‘strongly agree’ to 1 ‘strongly disagree’.

Data were analysed using Stata Release 15, a data analysis and statistics application (Thomas 2021:164). The discriminatory nature of each value category was assessed by employing factor analysis. Each value category was then analysed through Cronbach’s alpha to evaluate the internal consistency within value assessments. Eigenvalues were calculated to determine the number of factors to include in factor analysis. A heuristically accepted approach used in this study was the retention of factors with eigenvalues equal or above 1 (≥ 1) (Field, Miles & Field 2012). Eigenvalues show how even the variance distribution in the correlated matrix is (Field et al. 2012). They measurably ascertain the varying amount of the observed variables susceptible of explaining a factor. A factor displaying an eigenvalue 1 explains more variance than one observed variable. Generally, the factors explaining the lowest number of variances are disregarded.

Cronbach’s alpha calculations were performed to test the internal consistency of the items associated with e-procurement adoption readiness. Cronbach’s alpha values for the 24 items of the questionnaire range between 0.653 and 0.856, as shown in Table 2. These values surpassed 0.60, the minimum requirement for internal consistency, as recommended by Nunnally (1978).

The Cronbach’s alpha metric is generally accepted and used for scale reliability, which is an important step in factor analysis (Field et al. 2012). A factor analysis with varimax rotation was also employed to determine the factorial structure of the items. Statistical values obtained for both sample adequacy and sphericity met the preconditions for performing factor analysis, showing 0.820 for the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure and p < 0.001 for the Bartlett’s test in Table 3 (the KMO value exceeded the recommended value of 0.6 and the statistically significant p value is consistent with the correlation matrix factorability principle), as advocated by Pallant (2007).

This study obtained ethical clearance by Faculty of Management Sciences Research Ethics Committee (FCRE) of Tshwane University of Technology on 03/06/2022 (FCRE2020/FR/04/003-MS).

The technological factor deals with the use of required infrastructure to enable organisation, including the government, to disseminate and monitor and e-procurement service (Orina 2013:10). It plays a vital role in establishing the readiness of government departments in the adoption and implementation of e-procurement (Roy & Upadhyay 2017:67). The implementation of e-procurement requires due consideration of:

Legal and regulatory framework outlines guidelines in the e-procurement administration and practice. This framework includes national legislations and international laws:

Finance is a crucial factor that determines how ready government departments are with regard to e-procurement adoption. This is because e-procurement adoption and operation require economic and financial considerations in order to establish and manage perceived hidden costs, economic challenges relative to sourcing of clients and handle financial challenges:

The e-procurement readiness depends on the nature of procurement system, level of e-procurement adoption (full e-procurement adoption or partial e-procurement adoption), operating costs, system implementation and technical challenges related to e-procurement system adoption:

Leadership plays a vital role for the successful adoption and implementation of e-procurement, as already indicated on the technological factor. It needs to create readiness conditions in government departments for effective e-procurement adoption and operation. These readiness conditions are to emphasise, support and favour ethical adherence to address procurement irregularities (e.g. bribery, nepotism, corruption and fraud), positive attitude of public procurement officials towards e-procurement adoption, transparency of procurement information to all role players, accountability in the procurement process and system implementation in e-procurement adoption and implementation.

The procurement environment in South Africa is governed by procurement policy together with procurement legislation, which provides guidelines to be adhered to by procurement officials in the procurement process. Determining the effect of government’s procurement policy on e-procurement implementation and assessing government’s procurement structural system for efficiency are important aspects for establishing e-procurement readiness in government departments: