KUCHING: Sarawak Energy’s early focus on digitalisation prior to the Covid-19 pandemic played a major role in helping it manage the subsequent challenges and opportunities that arose, said Sarawak Energy chairman Datuk Amar Abdul Hamed Sepawi.

He said one of the measures taken by the utility company was the introduction of Sarawak Energy e-Procurement (Sepro), an e-procurement solution to overcome potential interruptions to its procurement processes.

“This has delivered benefits in a speedier and more transparent procurement experience to provide convenience for our vendors,” he said at the inaugural Sarawak Energy Vendor Appraisal Awards 2020 (Sevaa) which was officiated at by Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg, at Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) yesterday.

On Sevaa, Abdul Hamed said it was part of Sarawak Energy’s procurement excellence and vendor management transformation initiative.

“We aim to build stronger partnership with our vendors by encouraging them to embrace our corporate values, ethics and principles to foster excellence in our key focus areas,” he said.

He said the programme provided a common platform and process to evaluate the performance of Sarawak Energy’s vendors.

“The evaluation and rating scores are based on compliance with Health, Safety, Security and the Environment (HSSE), Quality Delivery, Responsiveness and Integrity assessment criteria,” he added.

Through Sevaa, he said Sarawak Energy also recognises outstanding vendors and those who needed further assistance to improve their delivery performance.

“We can work together with our vendors to close identified gaps and ensure successful contractual delivery and increased opportunity to participate in future undertakings.

“We also believe that Sarawak Energy has an important leadership role to play in promoting recognition and reward for exceptional performance, and we intend to collaborate with other government bodies to manage our vendors database to ensure sustainable vendor performance management.”

Abdul Hamed said Sarawak Energy has engaged with more than 800 locally established vendors with significant expenditure in works, goods consultancy and services.

“The share of work awarded to local and Bumiputera contractors has increased. In 2019, RM1.238 billion or 65 per cent of our total tenders were awarded to Sarawakian businesses.

“To date, the share of works awarded to Bumiputera contractors is RM2,193 million,” he said, adding that the number of qualified local and Bumiputera vendors registered in Sarawak Energy’s vendors’ list have increased by 630 companies since 2016.

He noted that Sarawak Energy’s contracts and procurement journey has seen significant changes since 2017 with a digital transformation of its procurement infrastructure, strategic procurement sourcing and categories and local vendor development.

“Our vendor management approach is evolving from a traditional vendor relationship model into a new one that is based on shared values and interests.

“We are developing a systematic way of interacting and managing vendors to create business opportunities and relationships that are more value-centric, favourable and overall positive in nature,” he said.

He added that this will allow for mutual trust, optimised vendor performance, reduced business risks and improved compliance with good corporate governance, in line with Sarawak Energy Code of Ethics.