Remarks of IME Division Secretary at the Wrap-up Meeting of DIMAPP Mission

Date: March 9, 2017

Time: 9:30am

Venue: CPTU Conference Room

• Director (Coordination), CPTU;
• Lead Procurement Specialist of World Bank Dr Zafrul Islam and other members of the DIMAPP Mission;
• My Colleagues at IME Division;
• Representatives of various Ministries, Divisions and Departments;
• Consultants under PPRP-II;

Assalamu Alaikum and a very good morning.

I am glad to be here at the closing of the World Bank Mission on formulation of a new project called Digitizing Implementation Monitoring and Public Procurement. I know that the mission started on 26 February and its members led by the Task Team Leader Dr Zafrul Islam have worked over the last two weeks to finalize components and key activities of DIMAPP.

I came to know the new project has taken an attempt to expand its target procuring agencies to 20 in place of 4 under the existing Public Procurement Reform Project-II. The PPRP-II is set to end in June this year and I am hopeful its objectives are going to be achieved.

The main objective of the new project is to expand digitization of public procurement as well as project implementation monitoring of the IME Division.

I would like to say challenges are there. But we must overcome the challenges because there is no way to come back from our journey towards digitization. You know, our government is pledge-bound to build Digital Bangladesh to reach public services to doorsteps of the people. And the services need to be free from all hassles.

We have introduced electronic government procurement or e-GP under the PPRP-II. We have been very successful in the procurement process starting from planning up to contract award. Now we need to include contract management in e-GP and full implementation of the electronic procurement system. This e-GP has been quickly and widely embraced by procuring agencies and tenderers.

We call e-GP simple, secure and speedy.

Until now more than 1000 out of a total of 1233 procuring agencies have been connected to e-GP. Over 29 thousand tenderers have registered with e-GP system. The number of tenders invited through e-GP is more than 84 thousand and their total value is over 76 thousand crore taka.

Now a wider-capacity data centre has been established which will start functioning in a couple of months and hopefully we will be able to bring the entire volume of public procurement in e-GP in 2017.

Therefore, we are now at a very crucial stage. You know the Prime Minister’s Office is directly monitoring implementation progress of e-GP. Moreover, I would say, the whole nation is watching our activities because this tender is one of the areas that suffered from lack of transparency, accountability and efficiency.

I believe, by the implementation of PPRP-II, we have improved a lot. Training is being imparted to procurement officers and tenderers in both rules and e-GP. Awareness about the need for a transparent procurement system has also increased. We need to consolidate now and make efforts to sustain what we have so far achieved.

In this context, the DIMAPP is important. I am happy that this project would try to digitize implementation monitoring of IMED. Well, I think this is very urgent. Nowadays, I believe a major part of monitoring could be done online and through video conference.

You know, IMED has taken an initiative to implement PMIS. If we can monitor projects properly and guide the implementing agencies in the right direction, I am sure this will bring good results. This e-GP system can have a linkage with PMIS so that we can also track any flaws or delay in procurement process. Often delays escalate costs and project implementation suffers seriously.   

I would like to thank the World Bank that they have consistently been supporting the government in its efforts to improve governance in public procurement and its digitization. Now I believe through the adoption and implementation of DIMAPP we will be able to accomplish the rest of our tasks.

We also need to strengthen CPTU for effective regulation and monitoring of public procurement. As part of this an initiative has been taken up to give CPTU more autonomy by turning it into a public procurement authority and corporatization of e-GP as well. However, in doing this we have to consider the pros and cons to arrive at a decision. I am hopeful that we will proceed in the right direction.

I extend my sincere thanks to DIMAPP Mission team for their stock-taking of PPRP-II progress and assessment of requirements for the new project. I also thank all those in the government, private sector, tenderers, civil society and media who have contributed by giving inputs to the process for preparation of the new project.

I hope together we will succeed.

THANK YOU ALL.