Most of the purchase proposals of the ministries do no follow the existing procurement guidelines and rules also, which causes problems for cabinet committee to take decisions and begets corruption, said a high official.
Additional Secretary of Cabinet Division Nurul Karim recently sent a letter to the ministries and divisions in this regard.
The letter said the purchase proposals were not made as per the Rules of Business 1996, the Public Procurement Act 2006 and the Public Procurement Rules 2008.
“We had no choice, but to send back the proposals to the respective ministries and divisions for rewriting,” said Nurul Karim. Development partners also insist on following procurement guidelines, he added.
Recently, a shipping ministry proposal on appointing five berth operators for Chittagong Port was sent back as it was not made as per procurement guidelines.
According to the Cabinet Division, the shipping ministry in its proposal didn’t publish tender in newspaper, skipped mentioning of the price increase of the quoted price and the quoted prices of all five operators were mentioned unusually of the same amount without any explanation.
The letter observed that many proposal summaries are made hurriedly and with little care just to place on the table for approval.
The Cabinet Committee and the Cabinet Division cannot judge the proposals properly due to lack of compliance, it said, urging the officials of the ministries and divisions to follow the existing procurement rules and guidelines while preparing purchase proposals.
The ministry officials were also asked to mention the procurement price in both number and words in the proposals.
They would also have to attach tender evaluation committee’s reports with the proposals.
Legally-fixed duration of tenders will also need to be mentioned in the procurement proposals, the letter said.
In 2012, an independent evaluation group of the World Bank visited Dhaka and found the loopholes in the country’s existing public procurement rules.
The group advised the government to rearrange the rules to ensure corruption-free implementation of infrastructure projects.
