Page 32 - CMA Journal (Jul-Aug 2026)

F oc us S ec t ion

Supplier spending, price history, delivery performance, category. Purchase order, supplier invoice, ERP Biased historical data may favor certain suppliers or Taxation data, and business history. (2) Integrate tax,
quality, purchase orders, goods receipts, invoices, and validation, FBR digital invoice, sales tax and WHT replicate current aws. Additional risks include vendor Enterprise Resource Planning, and procurement
payments can all be examined by procurement validation, payment approval, and bank payment are lock-in, out-of-date regulations, limited transparency, systems to rise transparency and close settlement
analytics. These domains assist organizations in the representation of the linked process. Payment and skills gaps. The risk can be stated as follows: Poor gaps. (3) Set human approval boundaries to permit for
transitioning from descriptive reporting to the delays may result from automated exceptions caused data quality, mismatched systems, and skill shortages; the automation of routine, low-risk transactions while
detection of trends, anomalies, and possible hazards. by inaccurate NTN data, tax status, tax codes, or invoice wrong decisions and large-scale impact because requiring documented approval for high-value,
The practical questions are simple: Which suppliers get values. On the other hand, missing transactions, odd automated logic can be applied at scale. Therefore, strategic, or unusual decisions. (4) Create AI
governance guidelines that address approved uses,
the biggest portion of the budget? Do current prices supplier behavior, inconsistent values, and possible human review, documented approval, and audit private information, recommendations made by AI,
Introduction energy-related services. di er signi cantly from past prices? Which suppliers compliance issues can all be found with the use of controls are crucial for strategic or high-value human review, accountability, and audit trails, and
For instance, there ful ll deadlines? Where are price or quantity integrated data. decisions. AI-assisted decision-making, not AI-owned
Obtaining products and services at the best price is not would be a potential decision-making, should be the guiding principle. ensure that signi cant decisions made with AI
only the goal of procurement; making pro ts, value of Rs. 200 million Table 1: Procurement Information, Building or Acquiring AI Capability assistance are traceable and recorded. (5) Develop the
skills of procurement professionals in data analytics,
managing working capital, operational e ciency, for a hypothetical 2 Businesses should carefully consider whether to create Excel, Power BI, ERP, taxation, and AI while keeping an
vendor association, tax compliance, and nancial risk percent e ciency Evidence Generated, and Management Use in-house AI systems or depend on outside vendors. eye on AI performance for bias, accuracy, security, and
all are impacted. Pakistan's projected procurement improvement on an Procurement information Evidence generated Management use Although widely available tools can be reasonable and evolving business conditions and avoiding
spending demonstrates its potential economic annual procurement applied, there are con dentiality and safety risks when over-reliance on a single technology vendor.
signi cance, and the World Bank has emphasized the expenditure of Rs. 10 Supplier expenditure and price Spend concentration and price Sourcing strategy and price uploading private procurement data. While enterprise
global scope of public procurement (World Bank, billion. This computation history variance challenge solutions may o er more control, they may also lead to Conclusion
2018). Contract management, supplier rivalry, shows the nancial vendor dependence. Customization and control over With the use of FBR's digital invoicing framework, ERP
purchasing e ciency, and fraud prevention can all importance of Delivery and quality performance Timeliness, rejection and defect Supplier evaluation and complex data may be possible with an internal systems, and EPADS, Pakistan is progressing toward a
bene t greatly from even small improvements. Digital procurement analytics patterns development platform, but infrastructure, cybersecurity, data more integrated procurement environment. The goal
procurement adapts the basis of judgment. for Karachi's industrial PO, goods receipt and invoice Quantity, price and Three-way matching and science, and maintenance investments are essential. In of this transition should be to enhance
Organizations can use transactional data to compare base, but it is not a data documentation exceptions payment control addition to Pakistan's varying data protection decision-making's quality, speed, transparency, and
prices, spot trends, appraise suppliers, and identify reported savings. regulations, organizations should consider data dependability rather than just replace paper with
software. AI is capable of analyzing vast amounts of
di erences instead of mainly depending on individual Payment and tax information Duplicate, unusual or Compliance review and risk position, cross-border transfer, and concealment data and identifying trends, but it can also make
experience and past performance. Therefore, the main Pakistan's Digital Procurement inconsistent transactions escalation implications when processing or hosting data outside inaccurate recommendations when the data is biased,
Transformation
of Pakistan. Keeping AI should not be the only goal.
objective is not whether procurement should go Note. Author's own analysis. The table consolidates the analytical questions and control functions already identified Control, con dentiality, and accountability should be incomplete, or poorly managed. Automation may
digital, but rather how AI and digital systems can With EPADS, Pakistan has entered a new stage of digital in this article; it does not represent independently reported savings or performance outcomes. upheld. Whensoever possible, companies should avoid decrease monotonous work while raising the need for
improve decision-making without surrendering procurement. According to PPRA, during excessive vendor lock-in, maintain control over crucial experts in technology, nance, taxation, procurement,
professional judgment, accountability, and FY2024–2025, EPADS 1.0 processed transactions mismatches occurring? Are there duplicate or odd Automation, AI and Human procurement information, and make sure that and analytics. Future research could monitor these
governance. Instead of presenting original empirical totaling more than Rs. 1.4 trillion, with 51,000 suppliers payment patterns? Table 1 summarizes how each Accountability decisions made with AI support can be reviewed. metrics as the system develops. One limitation of this
research, this paper uses a conceptual and and over 10,000 public-sector organizations category of procurement information generates Automation is becoming more and more appropriate Regional Lesson and Future Model paper is that the EPADS adoption gures cited are
practitioner-oriented approach, synthesizing publicly registered. Additionally, PPRA reported administrative speci c evidence and supports a corresponding for routine tasks like data entry, basic quotation self-reported by PPRA at an early stage of nationwide
available regulatory, institutional, and industry data. cost savings of about Rs. 20.52 billion. With supplier management action. comparison, purchase order generation, invoice An appropriate example is a Bangladesh as per world rollout and should be interpreted as directional rather
Karachi and Pakistan's Procurement registration, bene cial ownership veri cation, Procurement Analytics, Accounts matching, duplicate detection, routine reporting, and Bank Bangladesh's electronic government than independently audited outcomes. "Automate the
routine, analyze the data, challenge the AI, and keep
procurement system touched about 80% of its public
Context electronic invoicing, digital payments, electronic bid Payable and FBR basic supplier classi cation. Instead of just eliminating procurement expenditures in 2022, up from just 2% in humans accountable for the decision" is the guiding
submission, system-based bid evaluation, and jobs, this is better understood as job transformation. principle. This strategy can assist Pakistan in turning
A critical context for understanding the potential of contract-management capabilities, EPADS 2.0 Accounts Payable, Finance, and Procurement shouldn't Future workers might devote more of their time to 2017. Furthermore, there were about 7% cost savings procurement from a compliance-focused function into
compared to manual paper-based procurement
digital procurement is provided by Karachi. The city broadens this model (PPRA, 2026). By July 2026, 18,909 function separately. The Purchase-to-Pay cycle strategic sourcing, negotiations, contract (World Bank, 2022, 2023). The number of registered a strategic ability that improves transparency,
has a diverse procurement environment surrounding vendors and 1,824 procuring agencies had registered (Requisition, Purchase Order, Good or Service Receipt, management, risk assessment, cost modeling, supplier bidders improved while the lead time for procurement strengthens nancial and tax controls, and adds value
trade, infrastructure, transport, healthcare, water and with EPADS 2.0; since February 2026, about 7,000 Invoice, Tax Validation, and Payment) establishes a development, regulatory interpretation, AI reduced. The experience shows that digital to industries and the country's economy.
health, construction, logistics, technology, and procurements had been nished. The reported direct link between nancial controls and commercial monitoring, and exception management rather than procurement is more than just an Information
professional services since it is Pakistan's main integration with FBR, NADRA, SECP, PEC, provincial decisions. Unusual payment patterns, duplicate technology project; it calls for formal change, supplier References
commercial and industrial hub. FY2025–2026, the revenue authorities, and DRAP is noteworthy due to invoice numbers, incomplete documentation, invoices administrative tasks. Spend analysis, risk management, participation, dependable data, user instruction, • Federal Board of Revenue. (2025). Digital invoicing: Frequently asked questions
and technical assistance. Government of Pakistan.
Sindh government announced a growth budget of Rs. the growing connections between procurement data without approved purchase orders, invoice quantities supplier identi cation, negotiation optimization, governance, and continuing observation. Therefore, • Government of Sindh. (2025). Murad reviews development portfolio 2025–26
1.018 trillion, which comprised Rs. 85.5 billion for and corporate information, tax records, regulatory exceeding received quantities, and invoice prices compliance checks, fraud detection, anomaly human + data + AI + governance should be used to • with Rs. 1.018 trillion outlay. Government of Sindh.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2025). Governing
signi cant Karachi projects under the Local databases, and oversight mechanisms. Thus, in exceeding approved purchase-order prices can all be detection, supplier evaluation, demand forecasting, describe the upcoming future. Data o ers proof, with arti cial intelligence: The state of play and way forward in core government
Government Department (Government of Sindh, addition to traditional purchasing skills, future agged by analytics. Three-way matching is market-price analysis, and contract review can all be analytics nds trends, AI predictions and proposes, • functions. OECD Publishing.
Public Procurement Regulatory Authority. (2026). EPADS 2.0: Digital
2025). Numerous suppliers, contracts, invoices, procurement professionals will need to be pro cient in strengthened and duplicate payments, overpayments, aided by AI (Organization for Economic Co-operation procurement experts use business decision, nance transformation of public procurement in Pakistan. Government of Pakistan.
payments, and procurement decisions are involved in ERP, taxation, analytics, digital controls, and arti cial and processing errors can be decreased by integrating and Development [OECD], 2025). Decisions about and tax verify penalties, and governance creates • • World Bank. (2018). Pakistan at 100: Governance and institutions. World Bank.
World Bank. (2022). World Bank-funded project drives public procurement
this expense. Analytics can nd variations in prices intelligence. procurement and accounts payable data. An additional procurement, however, are not entirely mathematical. responsibility. Automation is used to remove reform in Bangladesh. World Bank.
paid for comparable products, suppliers who regularly degree of control is provided by the electronic While a procurement manager is aware of recent monotonous, low-value tasks so that professionals can • World Bank. (2023). World Bank helps Bangladesh transform public procurement
into a sustainable online system. World Bank.
ful ll delivery commitments, suppliers with high From Procurement Data to invoicing system of the Federal Board of Revenue nancial, quality, or capacity issues that are not shown focus on making higher-value decisions.
rejection rates, underutilized contracts, odd Evidence-Based Decisions (FBR). According to FBR, noti ed corporate and in the data, a supplier might have a solid track record. Recommendations for Pakistan
purchasing patterns, and chances for supplier Large amounts of data are produced by digital non-corporate registered persons are required to As a result, an AI recommendation might make sense
consolidation in industries like cement, textiles, and systems, but data by itself cannot produce value. When submit electronic invoices under S.R.O. 709(I)/2025 statistically but be unsuitable for business. Data The above-mentioned study suggests that Pakistani
FMCG, where Karachi-based manufacturers purchase trustworthy data is transformed into proof to back up a dated 22 April 2025 (Federal Board of Revenue, 2025), representativeness and quality are also important organizations and regulators take the following
high-volume raw materials, packaging, freight, and choice, value is created. with phased implementation dates speci ed for each factors for AI systems. measures. (1) Improve the quality of obtaining data by
normalizing product classi cations, supplier records,

30 ICMA’s Chartered Management Accountant, Jul-Aug 2026