A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the hosting of e-GP data center at the National Data Center was signed on June 24 between the Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU) of Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation, Ministry of Planning, and Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC) of ICT Division, Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Communication Technology.

(Executive Director of Bangladesh Computer Council Parthapratim Deb and Director General of CPTU Md Faruque Hossain exchanging documents after signing of MoU while Secretary, ICT Division Subir Kishore Choudhury and Secretary, IME Division Md Mofizul Islam look on.)

Secretary, IME Division, Md. Mofizul Islam, and Secretary, ICT Division Subir Kishore Choudhury, were present at the MoU signing ceremony at the Conference Room of CPTU on Planning Commission campus. Director General of CPTU and Additional Secretary Md Faruque Hossain, Additional Secretary (Admin) of IME Division AKM Badrul Mazid, Executive Director of BCC Parthapratim Deb,   Lead Procurement Specialist of World Bank Dr Zafrul Islam, Director, National Data Center of BCC Tarique M Barkatullah and other officials were also present on the occasion.

In the middle of last year, CPTU got the e-GP data center established at the National Data Center housed at Bangladesh Computer Council of the ICT Division. Since then the wider capacity e-GP data has been performing well and catering to the needs of growing number of tenderers and procuring entities getting registered with the e-GP system. Another e-GP data center has also been housed at CPTU for back-up support.

The BCC has provided space and infrastructural support to CPTU for the e-GP data center. The objective of signing of this MoU is to specify responsibilities regarding operation, safety, security, web services, situational obligations, dispute settlement, connectivity etc. of the e-GP data center housed at BCC.   

The ICT based electronic government procurement (e-GP) system has been growing fast since its introduction in 2011 in the process of public procurement. CPTU has been expanding e-GP under a project titled, “Digitizing Implementation Monitoring and Public Procurement (DIMAPP)” supported by World Bank.  

Until 24 June 2018, about 46,000 tenderers have registered with e-GP system. More than 1224 out of a total of 1319 government procuring agencies have been connected to e-GP. About one lakh 90 thousand tenders involving over one lakh 60 thousand crore taka have been invited through e-GP since 2011.

Public procurement is done in line with the Public Procurement Act-2006 and the Public Procurement Rules-2008. Therefore, it is a must to maintain a zero downtime of the e-GP data center.