The Director General of Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU), Mr. Mohammed Shoheler Rahman Chowdhury, on 15 June 2023 called upon all procuring agencies to take the opportunity of electronic contract management system (e-CMS) added to electronic government procurement (e-GP).

He was speaking as the Chair of a workshop on designing a citizen corner on CPTU mobile app to take opinions of citizens on contract implementation.

The CPTU organized it at its conference room where Secretary, IMED, Mr. Abul Kashem Md Mohiuddin was present as the chief guest.

The Secretary said any electronic system has some shortcomings in the beginning. It improves through run and practices. In this connection, he said, e-GP is a success today.

He mentioned design of a platform for accommodating views of citizens and reply to them on contract implementation may boost quality of project outcomes. Moreover, the citizens have right to know quality of contract implementation, the Secretary observed.

Dnet, a consulting firm engaged by CPTU, facilitated it. Director of CPTU and Additional Secretary Mr. Masud Akhter Khan moderated the workshop.

Representatives of government offices, business organizations, tenderer community, media and civil society participated in the workshop.

They appreciated the idea of hearing voices of citizens on public procurement issues. Because procurement involves public funds which amount to about 30 billion US dollars a year.

However, they suggested for piloting the initiative first.

The DG CPTU in his concluding remarks urged all concerned to utilize recently added features of e-GP like e- Audit, international competitive bidding (ICB), direct procurement method (DPM), Tenderers' Database and e-CMS.

He said first online payment to a contractor was made in Noakhali using the e-CMS module in e-GP by the Roads and Highways Department Executive Engineer there on 13 June 2023.

All procuring entities now need to use the online system of payment to contractors, the DG observed.

About eight kinds of data of tenderers including their turnover, experience, number of contracts executed, debarment and contracts in hand are available in the database, he mentioned.

The DG CPTU said digital system of public procurement leapt another step forward with implementation of e- CMS.

As the module of e-CMS is added to e-GP, the CPTU made a breakthrough in achieving its ultimate result when the bill of a contractor was first disbursed online on 13 June 2023.

The achievement is attributed to a joint effort of CPTU, iBAS++ team, Dohatec enhancement, operation and maintenance (EOM) team, executive engineer of Roads and Highways Department, Noakhali, and the concerned contractor by using the e-CMS module in the e-GP system.

With the e-CMS in place, contract management is now performed through e-GP. Starting from procurement plan up to contract completion including bill payment and certification is now done online.

The CPTU has drafted sustainable public procurement policy and asset disposal policy with the aim of making procurement sustainable under SDG Goal.