The government is careful about protecting interests of all concerned in public procurement, especially tenderers as they are involved in implementation of the country’s development programmes.

As part of it, electronic government procurement (e-GP) system has been introduced. The government does not want to put them (tenderers) in difficulty due to any sudden volatility in the market as they are making significant contributions to the execution of development projects.

Mr. Masud Akhter Khan, Director (Additional Secretary), Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU) of Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) under the Ministry of Planning, said this as the chief guest at an awareness workshop on e-GP held in Narsingdi on 16 May 2023.

The CPTU organized the workshop at the conference room of the office of the Deputy Commissioner in the district for creating awareness among the concerned with the aim of ensuring transparency in public procurement.

Under the Digitizing Implementation Monitoring and Public Procurement Project (DIMAPP) which is being implemented by CPTU with support from the World Bank, the workshop was managed by Bangladesh Center for Communication Programs (BCCP).

Mr. Abu Naeem Mohammad Maruf Khan, Deputy Commissioner of Narsingdi presided over the workshop. Dr. Zeenat Sultana, Director (Program), BCCP, delivered the welcome address and made a presentation on e-GP and public procurement.

Additional Deputy Commissioner (General) Mr. Mostafa Manwar, Additional Superintendent of Police Mr. Shamsul Arefin, a number of tenderers and representatives from procuring entities, attended the workshop. Mr. Mohammad Abdus Salam, Program Manager, BCCP, moderated the program.

As the tenderers spoke on their difficulty in doing business due to a surge in prices of construction materials, the CPTU director said that Covid-19 and Russia-Ukraine war is responsible for volatility in global market, but he expected this will not last for a long time.

No country is out of the brunt of such an uneasy situation, he said adding to give a sigh of relief, the government has recently enhanced the rates of materials for being quoted by tenderers for construction works. The prices have gone further high which put tenderers in a more difficult situation, he admitted, expecting such an abnormal situation will not last longer.

Mr. Abu Naeem Mohammad Maruf Khan, Deputy Commissioner of Narsingdi, urged tenderers to show highest sincerity in starting contract implementation after being awarded and completing it timely by maintaining the quality for the sake of sustainable development.

In the presentation, it was emphasized that besides e-GP Portal, the Citizen Portal will help ensure people’s participation in monitoring of contract implementation as this incorporates features to get access to related information on project works. For this, the Citizen Portal needs to be popularized among the people, it mentioned.

A total of 75 participants including local representatives of procuring entities (PEs), tenderers and journalists attended the workshop.