Mr.Md. Ali Noor, Director General of CPTU and Additional Secretary, expressed the view while speaking as chief guest at a workshop of GTF in Sylhet on 11 March 2019.

The CPTU conducted the workshop in cooperation with Bangladesh Centre for Communication Programs under the Digitizing Implementation Monitoring and Public Procurement Project (DIMAPPP) at the Conference Room of the DC Office in Sylhet.

The CPTU has been implementing DIMAPPP with support from the World Bank.

Task Team Leader of DIMAPPP and Lead Procurement Specialist of World Bank Dr. Zafrul Islam, Divisional Commissioner (in-charge) Mr. Mrinal Kanti Deb and Director (Training and Coordination) Mr. Shish Haider Chowdhury of CPTU were present as special guests in the program with Deputy Commissioner of Sylhet M. Kazi Emdadul Islam in chair.

Principal Project Management Specialist of DIMAPPP Mr. Md. Mosta Gausul Hoque, Deputy Director of CPTU Mr. Salahuddin Ahmed, Director and CEO M Shahjahan, Senior Deputy Director Ms. Khadiza Bilkis of BCCP, Sylhet GTF Committee members, representatives of various procuring agencies and tenderers of Sylhet region attended the workshop.

The objective of the workshop was to take views of the major stakeholders in public procurement about ways to make GTF effective and sustainable.

Also, an idea raised at a Dhaka workshop in November 2018 to have a central GTF body in Dhaka was shared with the local level participants.

At the inaugural session the DG, CPTU said that any gap between procuring entities and tenderers could be reduced if the GTFs were made effective and sustainable.

Dr Zafrul Islam said, “Bangladesh has proved that procurement reform is possible here. Earlier, there was a gap between procuring agencies and tenderers. The GTF is a unique model in the world where tenderers can sit across the table with government procuring entities.”

Bangladesh is recognized globally for its success in e-GP implementation
and many countries are following the Bangladesh model, he said, adding, “We would work to make GTF globally prominent so that other countries follow it. For this, GTF needs to be institutionalized.”

The participants worked on devising ways of making it sustainable. They also endorsed the idea of creating a central Bangladesh Government-Tenderers Forum (BGTF)