U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS—Governor Albert Bryan Jr. has announced that the Virgin Islands Department of Property and Procurement has begun implementing the Government of the Virgin Islands’ new electronic contract processing system.
Beginning November 1, 2019, all government contractors will be required to utilize the user-friendly electronic system to submit contracts to the Department of Property and Procurement, according to Property and Procurement Commissioner Anthony Thomas.
“The electronic processing system for contracts is a major step toward the Bryan/Roach Administration’s pledge to utilize available digital technology to make more efficient important revenue-generating functions of government,” Governor Bryan said. “This new way of processing government contracts will streamline the procedure and make executing contracts more efficient and timely and allow our government to keep up with the pace of the modern business environment.”
Commissioner Thomas said agency heads and their contract administrators currently are being trained in using Sharepoint, which is a standard feature of Microsoft 360 and is managed by the Virgin Islands Bureau of Information Technology.
Draft contracts will be submitted electronically and, once approved by the Department of Property and Procurement, will be returned for signatures by contractors and agency heads.
All steps associated with contract drafting, review, and execution will take place within SharePoint, and contracts will be signed using Adobe or DocuSign, without the need to print and submit a contract to the Department of Property and Procurement, according to Commissioner Thomas.
“Electronic processing of contracts is one of the chief objectives of the Office of Procurement, Contract Management and Reporting, and it will enable the Government to process contracts more efficiently,” Commissioner Thomas said in the policy memo he sent to all agencies in the Central Government.
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