The government is working to ensure value for money in public procurement through transparency and accountability in a digital manner.

With this aim, electronic government procurement (e-GP) Portal was launched in 2011. The government is implementing e-GP as part of Digital Bangladesh which will play an effective role in building Smart Bangladesh.

Director (Joint Secretary) of the Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU) of Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) under the Ministry of Planning Mr. Md. Aknur Rahman, PhD said this as the chief guest at a Government-Tenderers’ Forum (GTF) workshop held on 13 June 2023 in Magura.

Magura’s Deputy Commissioner and District Magistrate Mr. Mohammed Abu Naser Beg presided over the workshop held at the conference room of the DC office in the district.

Bangladesh Center for Communication Programs (BCCP) organized the workshop under the Digitizing Implementation Monitoring and Public Procurement Project (DIMAPPP) of CPTU with support from the World Bank.

Ms. Zeenat Sultana, Program Director, BCCP delivered the welcome address and gave a presentation on GTF in the workshop. District GTF members were present and they expressed various important views. Mohammad Abdus Salam, Program Officer, BCCP moderated the event.

Highlighting the importance of GTF in the implementation of e-GP, Md. Aknur Rahman said that if any problems arise in procurement process, procuring entities and tenderers resolve them through mutual discussions.

Highlighting the progress of e-GP in a decade, he said that since 2011, the number of tenders called through e-GP has exceeded 6 lakh 89 thousand and more than 106,190 tenderers have registered with e-GP. About 1,437 procuring agecnies are registered with e-GP.

The Deputy Commissioner and District Magistrate of Magura Mohammad Abu Nasser Baig said, the GTF is an integrated platform of procurement entities and tenderers which creates an environment of cooperation between the two key stakeholders on various aspects of public procurement and accelerates the most important work of the development project.

Terming the use of e-GP as one of the priority procurement activities of the government, he said as a result of e-GP, many additional tasks have been reduced.