It is necessary to involve citizens right from the beginning of public procurement process. The quality of work will improve if local citizens can be made aware of the work before its implementation. Such views were expressed on 26 August 2021 at a virtual workshop on citizen engagement in public procurement held via Zoom video conferencing platform encompassing three upazillas of Mymensingh Division.

Mohammed Shoheler Rahman Chowdhury, Director General of Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU) of IMED under Ministry of Planning, joined the workshop virtually and said, “CPTU is currently working with the aim to institutionalize public procurement. We are putting special focus on e-GP. Today we will hear from you. The more everyone will discuss, the more we will be able to learn and the more we will be able to improve e-GP.” He said this in this speech as the Chairperson of the workshop.

While sharing information e-GP at the workshop, he said that at present 65% of expenditures on public procurement are carried out through e-GP. Since 2011, until now the number of tenders in e-GP has crossed 5 lakh. Almost 90,000 tenderers and 1372 public procurement agencies have so far registered with the e-GP system.

Since its introduction in 2011 up to July 2021, an amount of taka 1405 crore income earned through registration, renewal and document fees has been deposited in the government treasury. About 6 thousand branches of 49 banks are providing e-GP payment services to tenderers across the country. From 2003 up to July 2021, 37,000 people have been trained on PPR and public procurement for various courses and durations.  Government officials, as well as tenderers and news reporters are part of such trainings. Since 2011 up to July 2021, 19,500 people have been trained in e-GP, and these people included government officials, bank officers and tenderers.

To implement citizen engagement in public procurement CPTU wants to undertake such a strategy that will be compatible with Bangladesh’s environment, sustainable, and cost-effective. Under the idea, citizens living near the sites of project in upazilas were organized to form a citizen monitoring group. Their responsibility is to monitor the progress and quality of the work and inform local government upazila engineer of any irregularities.

Under the “Digitizing Implementation Monitoring and Public Procurement Project (DIMAPPP)”, CPTU is working on the involvement of local citizens in the implementation of public procurement in 48 upazillas of the country in phases from 2020. BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD) is serving as a consultant to CPTU for this work.

Citizen engagement has been introduced in a total of 48 upazilas including 16 upazilas in 2020 and 32 more upazilas in 2021. BRAC's Community Empowerment Program (CEP) is collaborating with BIGD at the field level for the activity.

The workshop participants shared their experiences at the field level. The views of the concerned stakeholders were also taken.

CPTU Director Mr. Md. Aziz Taher Khan in his speech greeted all the participants and said, “Although we have faced some problems due to COVID-19, we have managed public procurement activities virtually.”

In his special guest speech, Deputy Commissioner of Mymensingh, Mr. Mohammad Enamul Haque said, “Citizens need to be involved in public procurement from the beginning. Not only that, all development projects should also have signboards with procurement information. Procurement estimates need to be in Bangla. Confusion arises because there is no clear idea about the project. So informing at the local level before implementation can be positive.”

 BIGD’s Senior Programme Manager Syeda Salina Aziz made a power point presentation titled "Citizen Involvement in Government Procurement Process and Workshop Perspectives."

Mr. Md. Nasimur Rahman Sharif, Deputy Director, CPTU and Mr. Mosta Gausul Haq, Principal Project Management Consultant along with Mr. Jahangir Alam, Additional Deputy Commissioner (General) were present in the virtual workshop. The event was also joined by representatives of local level procurement agencies, local tenderers, local government representatives, civil society representatives and members of the observer teams.

The workshop was moderated by Mr. Md. Shafiul Alam, Senior Communication Consultant, DIMAPPP, CPTU.