“Reforms in public procurement produce good results, steps needed to remove challenges”

An amount of 600 million US dollars has been saved from 2012 to 2019 from digitization of public procurement (electronic government procurement, e-GP). The time for procurement of Works (from invitation to contract signing) has come down to 59 days from 94 days. Such data was disclosed at a National Consultation Workshop on Assessment of Bangladesh Public Procurement System.

Director General (Additional Secretary) of CPTU Mr. Md. Ali Noor presided over the workshop.  

Honorable Planning Minister Mr. M A Mannan MP was present as the Chief Guest at the workshop organized by CPTU and World Bank on 29 September 2019 at Hotel Radisson in Dhaka.

Secretary, IMED, Mr.Abul Mansur Md. Faizullah, Country Director of World Bank Bangladesh Ms. Mercy Miyang Tembon, and South Asia Region Procurement Manager Ms. Almas Arisoy were present as the Special Guests in the workshop.

Senior Procurement Specialist of World Bank Mr. Ishtiak Siddique and Lead Procurement Consultant Mr. Peter-Armin Trepte presented findings of the assessment in the workshop.

The rate of contract award in stipulated timeframe in public procurement in 2007 was only 10 per cent while it rose to 90 per cent in 2019. The rate of tender notice publication was 15 per cent and now it is 100 per cent in e-GP. The average competition per tender has risen to 16 from 4. More than 34 thousand persons received training in public procurement and e-GP system since 2003 to 2019.

However, there are challenges too. These include problems the small tenderers facing under the present procurement environment, non-completion of projects in due time and   problems emanating from 10 per cent rule in OTM and the decrease in competition under OTM in e-GP. The stakeholders through group work came up with suggestions to overcome the above bottlenecks.

World Bank will now compile those and place to CPTU.

Honorable Planning Minister in his speech said, “People want to see their money is safe in our hands and we are spending it rightly. We have made a very good progress through implementation of public procurement reforms. But still there are problems which we want to solve taking your views.”

All activities of the government are now fair. Anybody can have information. The level of awareness about public procurement has increased much. There have been efforts to involve citizens in public procurement. The government is interested in it, he added.  

The Secretary, IMED, said that public procurement affects all aspects of project activities. It plays a significant role in completion or non-completion of government projects in due time. Therefore, he said, the government is putting much emphasis on public procurement reforms.

At the beginning, the DG CPTU in his address of welcome said Bangladesh has achieved a success in reforming public procurement. Still, there are rooms for improvement. This assessment was taken up one year back. Data was collected from all stakeholders like procuring entities, tenders, civil society and media. Those have been consulted with CPTU and presented here after analysis.

The WB CD said Bangladesh is now much known for its success in achieving higher growth. The e-GP implemented by CPTU has also earned appreciation abroad. She assured Bangladesh government of a very good partnership in further improvement of the public procurement system in Bangladesh.