Indonesia Revamps eCatalogue Procurement System

Indonesia Announces Open Enrollment for eCatalogue Procurement System

Latest Update

On April 7^th the Ministry of Health announced a new eCatalogue open enrollment policy whereby manufacturers can submit new applications year round. Applications are now accepted upon submission with on-line publication the same or next day. There’s no advanced verification of application documents but application documents are subject to review post publication, and subject to de-listings if anything is found to be incorrect.

A major rework of the eCatalogue system was just implemented in February of 2022 (see associated article here). While the software platform itself seems to be struggling to keep up with increased demand for new listings with frequent “suspension of service” reports, the Ministry of Health has been tweaking the enrollment policies. The latest being the third and most liberal in the past 8 weeks.

Summary of Structural Changes to the e-Catalogue System

On February 11^th, the Indonesia government implemented significant structural and procedural changes to the medical device sector of the procurement system known as e-Catalogue (Announcement KN.01.04/3/630/2022). The changes go a long way to increasing ease of access and should be welcomed by hospitals, healthcare works and medical device manufacturers.

Summary of Changes:

1. E-Catalogue pricing determined solely by manufacturer
2. Increase the number of device categories that can apply
3. Increase the length of time the application window is open
4. Application simplification
5. Decreases categorization discrepancies with Import License

Perhaps the most significant change is that manufacturers or their local agents are now able to set their own product price in e-Catalogue. Previously, pricing was set through negotiations with the LKPP, or MOH which restricted the price to a controlled markup from landed cost.  Elimination the price negotiation meeting gives full price control to the manufacturer; and is a key element to getting more products on the system faster. In fact, in a speech on February 11^th, the Minister of Health set a target of 20,000 products to be included in the e-catalog by June 2022 in support of presidential reformations.

Product categories specified for 2022 enrollment has been expanded to 1,482 types of medical devices.  The enrollment window will be open from February 11^th to November 2^nd, 2022, with a target of 20,000 products listed by summer 2022.

Structurally, medical device listing in e-Catalogue will be moved to a new Healthcare Sector administration of which will be done by the Ministry of Health. Sectorial administration comes with a simplify application process. Importantly, the requirement for any documents to be Authenticated by the Indonesian Embassy in the country of origin has been eliminated. This will significantly reduce the time for application preparation. Also, with application review by Ministry of Health staff, and no longer by the Indonesian Government Goods and Services Procurement Organization (LKPP), discrepancies between product categorization between the Import License and c-Catalogue application will be eliminated.

Access to the Healthcare Sector is still done via the existing e-catalog portal (https://e-katalog.lkpp.go.id), but now there are options to access ‘national’, as well as new ‘sectoral’ and ‘local’ sub-sties.  Any medical devices currently listed on e-Catalogue irrespective of these changes.

What is Indonesia’s e-Catalogue System?

Indonesia’s e-Catalogue is a central purchasing portal used by all government organizations to purchase goods. Initiated in 2013, the system was established to bring transparency and prevent corruption in the government procurement sector, including public hospitals. It took parties some time to understand the implications on sales and at first international and local companies seemed weary to participate in the voluntary system. Eventually, the benefits of listing in the e-Catalogue became obvious and there was a rush on listings, creating delays during the short annual enrollment windows.

It will be important for manufacturers to develop and implement an optimal e-catalogue pricing strategy.

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