Improvements are coming to the Government of Jamaica’s electronic procurement platform (GoJEP) as officials seek to make it easier for businesses and the public to track how State contracts are awarded — a long-standing pain point in Jamaica’s public procurement system.

The web-based procurement portal, which hosts tender notices, bid documents and contract awards across ministries and public bodies, is set to receive a fresh round of upgrades over the coming months, according to the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service.

Speaking at a recent JIS Think Tank, Chief Public Procurement Policy Officer Jovell Barrett said the changes are aimed squarely at usability, following feedback from users who found it difficult to locate and analyse award information on the platform.

While GoJEP has been in operation for several years and is central to the government’s push for transparency, Barrett acknowledged that some functions — particularly around searching contract award notices — were not as intuitive as they should have been.

“For example, when it comes to contract award notices, we would have recognised that the way in which persons are able to filter the notices by procuring entity, by procurement method, it wasn’t as user-friendly,” Barrett said.

That issue, he noted, has already begun to be addressed. In recent system updates rolled out over the past two months, users can now filter awards more easily by procuring entity, contract value and procurement method — a change that significantly improves the ability of contractors, watchdog groups and journalists to follow public spending patterns.

The upgrades come at a time when public procurement remains under close scrutiny, particularly as government spending rises on infrastructure, housing and post-disaster recovery projects. Procurement experts have long argued that while Jamaica’s procurement rules are robust on paper, transparency depends heavily on how accessible and navigable public information actually is.

Barrett said the improvements are part of a broader, ongoing process rather than a one-off system refresh.

“GoJEP is fairly new and we are always improving the usability and the user friendliness of the system. And we take feedback on the system and where there’s a need to improve, we do the improvements to the system,” he said.

Beyond award notices, the portal is intended to function as a central marketplace for Government contracts, allowing both registered and unregistered suppliers to view procurement opportunities in real time.

“We provide a system where registered suppliers or suppliers who are not registered, or the public generally, can see the notices that have been published by procurement entities for procurement opportunities,” Barrett said.

He encouraged wider public use of the platform, noting that its role extends beyond oversight to participation.

“You can log on to GoJEP… not just to see contract award notices but to see the competitions that are out there that maybe you would want to participate in,” he said.

Further enhancements to the platform are expected to be rolled out in the coming months, as the Government continues efforts to modernise procurement systems and strengthen accountability across public bodies.