Date: 29 December 2022

Venue: CPTU Conference Room

Time: 3:00 PM

With profound respect, we remember the name of the Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who initiated the Project Implementation Bureau (PIB) in January 1975. Later, as the responsibilities and scope of work increased, in 1984 PIB was placed under the Ministry of Planning as Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED).

The 'Central Procurement Technical Unit' was established as a unit in IMED in the year 2002 with the overall responsibility of monitoring public procurement of the country. As a part of building Digital Bangladesh, Honorable Prime Minister and daughter of the Father of the Nation Sheikh Hasina launched the "National Electronic Government Procurement Portal" introduced by the CPTU on 2nd June 2011.

National Electronic Government Procurement Portal:

Currently, e-GP continues to expand. Till December 2022, the number of tenders invited through e-GP was about six lakh and a half (6.5 lakh). The number of registered tenderers was also more than one lakh. More than 6,500 branches of 59 banks are providing payment services to tenderers across the country. Online payment is also available.

In line with the Delta Plan, Rupkalpo (Vision) 2041, the five-year plan, the Annual Development Program (ADP), allocation is also increasing as the budget size increases every year. Along with that, the expenditure on public procurement is increasing. Forty-five per cent of the national budget and about 80 per cent of the ADP is being spent on public procurement. The procurement system is being made paperless by ensuring transparency, accountability, efficiency and free competition in public procurement management. Electronic Contract Management (e-CMS) system was launched for full implementation of e-GP in the last one year. A database of all registered tenderers of the country has been created. Processing of International Competitive Tenders (ICT) (Goods) and module have been introduced in e-GP. Besides e-GP is integrated with iBAS++. A-challan has been introduced for the online payment of e-GP registration, tender documents and related fees. The audit module has been launched to audit the procurement management of any procuring entities. Besides, e-GP has been integrated with national identity card. The e-GP system has not stopped functioning even for a day during the global COVID pandemic. The system has already received ISO certification.

Presently, 100% of tender advertisements and contracts processed through e-GP system are published and any citizen can see the relevant information. In case of tenders, 99% of Contracts (NOA) are awarded within the stipulated time.  An amount of BDT 400-450 crore of income is generating per year from this system. Total income up to December 2022 is BDT 1,961.03 crore (source: e-GP System). Also, the average prcourement processing time has come down to 58 days from 86.7 days. The use of e-GP system is saving USD 600 million annually, reducing tenderers’ travel distance by 497 million KM, saving 1,053 million pages of paper and reducing carbon emissions by 153,559 tons (MAP, World Bank, June 2020).

Activities related to citizen participation in public procurement:

Monitoring of selected contracts has been implemented through local citizens to check whether the implementation of public procurement contracts are maintaining the required standards. This program has been conducted in 48 upazilas of eight divisions and 16 districts. A total of 316 contracts/work were monitored in 48 upazilas. Based on the experience gained at the field level and taking suggestions from the relevant stakeholders, a model related to citizen engagement in public procurement has already been finalized.

Citizen portal on public procurement

A citizen portal called ' Sorkari Kroi Batayan' (https://citizen.cptu.gov.bd) has been launched to inform citizens about various information related to public procurement. A lot of information related to public procurement is now at the fingertips of citizens through this citizen portal named 'Sorkari Kroi Batayan'.

e-PMIS:

An online self-contained database and software e-PMIS (electronic project management information system) has been developed under the initiative of IMED to ensure immediate receipt and delivery of project related information in electronic system. Through the implementation of e-PMIS, along with the monitoring of ongoing development projects, the progress and current status of the project will be available through geo-tagging. This system will be integrated with various national systems like NID System, iBAS++, e-GP System, Project Planning System (PPS), ADP/ RADP Management System (AMS). At present, the work of e-PMIS system development is almost completed. Data entry of 3 projects of IMED and 32 projects of 8 sectors in e-PMIS is in progress. It will start its pilot program soon.

The project titled “Digitizing Implementation Monitoring and Public Procurement Project” is under implementation from July 2017 to December 2023. The project is achieving almost 100% targets (physical and financial) every year and is termed Satisfactory Project by the World Bank. In 2021, the World Bank awarded this project with the World Bank's Directors Award for being Most Innovative, Collaborative and Impactful Governance Global Practice Operations.