The role of journalists in expediting quality implementation of public procurement and Annual Development programme (ADP) is important because media often highlight various aspects of the subjects in their reports.

Secretary, Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division, Mr. Pradip Ranjan Chakraborty, made the observation on 16 September 2021 while speaking online at IMED as the chief guest of a virtual orientation programme on public procurement and electronic government procurement (e-GP) for journalists in Sylhet.

The orientation programme was organized by the Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU) and facilitated by Bangladesh Center for Communication Programs (BCCP).

Kazi M Emdadul Islam, Deputy Commissioner and District Magistrate, Sylhet, was connected online to it as the special guest.

Director General of CPTU and Additional Secretary Mohammed Shoheler Rahman Chowdhury chaired the orientation programme.

Director of CPTU and Joint Secretary Mr. Aziz Taher Khan, made a presentation on the subject elaborating areas of public procurement and its digitization. As many as 30 journalists of various media in Sylhet Division took part in the orientation online.

The Secretary said despite the COVID pandemic ADP implementation was more than 82 per cent in the just-concluded fiscal year of 2020-2021. He said, “I would like to give credit also to journalists as we take corrective measures on the basis of their reports published in the media. And this contributes to advancement of the projects”

He said the IMED under the Ministry of Planning is going to have electronic project management information system (e-PMIS) where journalists will also get access up to a certain level. “Presently there are 1700 projects in the current ADP. We will be able to monitor online the project progress through e-PMIS which will have geo-tagging and geo-location. We hope to get the system ready by 2022. This initiative is also a part of Digital Bangladesh vision,” the Secretary mentioned.

Focusing on the importance of public procurement, the Secretary said 80 per cent of ADP and 45 per cent of national budget are spent on it. The quicker public procurement the timely will be project implementation.

“We need to achieve higher growth path and reach the target to be a developed nation by 2041,” he noted.

Journalists raised a number of points about e-GP, public procurement and their implementation challenges. The DG CPTU answered to their questions.

The questions and observations included having many contracts at a time in the hand of one contractor, delay in contract implementation, escalation of project costs, percentage of e-GP in total value of procurement, end to hassles in tendering process, some recent happenings in procurement area etc.

The DG CPTU explained such matters in light with Public Procurement Act 2006 and Public Procurement Rules 2008. He said now 65 per cent of expenditures for public procurement is now done through e-GP.

He said, “Citizens have the right to know about public procurement. We want to give you correct information and clarify the issues of public procurement so that you can give authentic information to people.”

The DC, Sylhet wanted to know the number of works a single contractor can have at a time. He said the second lowest evaluated tenderer is also competent. Moreover, if one person has many works at a time, he/she cannot maintain quality of all works and the incidents of sale take place which goes against the procurement law and rules.

The DG CPTU said, “Sometimes tenderers do not provide the details of his previous works and the evaluation committee finds it difficult to know it. To get rid of the problem, we have developed a tenderers’ database and we are in discussion on it with SPSOs for finalization. When it will be in place procuring entities will have the details of works done by any registered contractor.”