KUCHING: Sarawak Energy Berhad has engaged more than 500 vendors comprising Sarawakian, other Malaysian and international vendors with significant expenditure in works, goods consultancy and services last year.
Its Chairman, Datuk Amar Abdul Hamed Sepawi said out of this number, more than 200 or 40 per cent were Sarawakian Bumiputera.
He said since 2016, the share of works awarded to Sarawakian Bumiputera vendors has exceeded RM 2.8 billion.
“To ensure vendors perform to the best of their abilities, we proactively address the barriers they face both during sourcing and contract execution.
“We are partnering four financial institutions as part of our vendor financing programme, to assist local vendors with financial challenges when they participate in Sarawak Energy’s projects,” he said at the Sarawak Energy Vendors Award (SEVA) ceremony at Pullman Hotel Wednesday night.
Abdul Hamed said in total, RM66.7 million has been approved and benefitted more than 10 local contractors to date – both Bumiputera and non-Bumiputera Sarawakian companies.
He said Sarawak Energy also signed an MoU with Sarawak-based Strategic Manufacturers, to support the local business community in the supply chain and sustain local employment.
He said other key success factors were digitalisation and sustainability – key to business resilience, in today’s business environment.
“We rolled out Sarawak Energy e-Procurement (SEPRO) as our digital procurement platform in 2019 and this meant we were able to continue operating during the COVID19 pandemic.
“Starting this year in 2022, our vendor performance evaluation process under the SEVAA programme was also integrated into SEPRO.
“All performance evaluations are now available within one single online platform – this is a more transparent and efficient vendor performance evaluation process,” he added.
Abdul Hamed said in collaboration with the United Nations Global Compact Malaysia & Brunei, Sarawak Energy has rolled out its Small Medium Enterprise -Sustainability Development Goals or SME-SDG Toolkit, to help vendors leverage sustainability as a source of growth
Meanwhile, the Sarawak Energy Vendors Appraisal and Award programme or SEVAA is one of Sarawak Energy’s key procurement transformation initiatives since it was introduced in 2020.
“Through this, we aim to strengthen our vendor performance management mechanisms and foster closer ties with our vendors.”
“It allows us to identify top performers as well as vendors who require assistance in closing identified gaps. We have seen improved ratings for vendors under the SEVAA programme this year,” he said.
“While we have progressed, we cannot be complacent; Sarawak Energy and our vendors will continue working together to contribute to Sarawak’s growth,” he added.
