The government is prioritizing reforms in public procurement, aiming to ensure proper and timely implementation of development projects and prevent the misuse of the approximately $30 billion spent annually, said Bangladesh Public Procurement Authority (BPPA) Director (Joint secretary) Md Mahfuzar Rahman.
He made the remarks while speaking as chief guest at a workshop on BPPA activities and Electronic-Government Procurement (e-GP), held at the Deputy Commissioner’s Office in Bhola on Sunday.
The workshop, organized by BPPA, with Deputy Commissioner and District Magistrate Md Azad Jahan in the chair. The Bangladesh Centre for Communication Programs (BCCP) coordinated the event. Participants included representatives from district procurement offices, banks, bidders, journalists, and members of BCCP.
“On average, around 1,500 projects are included every year under the Annual Development Program (ADP). If the intended goals of these projects are achieved, they will have a major positive impact on the national economy,” he said.
Mahfuzar Rahman said: “The current government is prioritizing reforms and transparency across all sectors. One major reform in public procurement is the digitization process, or e-GP.”
“Currently, around 65% of public procurement is conducted through e-GP. We must increase this to 100%,” he said.
He continued: “Bangladesh’s e-GP system has already gained appreciation both at home and abroad. To date, 11 countries and five international organizations have observed the system and its implementation.”
He added: “An electronic Contract Management System (e-CMS) has also been launched, enabling real-time monitoring of project implementation from the office, as it is integrated with the e-GP system. Moreover, bidder payments are being directly transferred to their accounts.”
He also said: “Additionally, e-Audit has been introduced, and efforts are underway to integrate e-GP with the Document Verification System (DVS) to verify the financial information submitted by bidders online.”
Highlighting the achievements of e-GP, he said: “In 2007, only 70% of tender notices could be published, whereas now the rate has reached 100%.”
He further said: “In 2007, just 10% of work orders were issued within the initial validity period of tenders, which has now risen to 96.63%. The average number of valid bids per tender has also increased from only 3 to 10.68.”
