With a view to achieving transparency and accountability in public procurement, the government has made significant progress in the implementation of electronic government procurement (e-GP).

It is playing an important role in ensuring value for money. The progress is also contributing effectively to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2041 and building a Smart Bangladesh.

Director (Joint Secretary) of Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU) of Implementation Monitoring Evaluation Division (IMED), Ministry of Planning, Mr. Md. Aknur Rahman, PhD made such observations while speaking as the chief guest at a workshop of Government-Tenderers Forum (GTF) on 30 July 2023 in Panchagarh.

Deputy Commissioner and District Magistrate of Panchagarh Mr. Md. Zahurul Islam presided over the workshop held in the conference room of the DC Office.

Others present in the workshop included Mr. S. M. Shafiqul Islam, Additional Superintendent of Police (Administration and Finance), Dr. Mostafa Zaman Chowdhury, Civil Surgeon, Mr. Md. Azad Jahan, Deputy Director, Local Government, Mr. Md. Abdul Quader, Additional Deputy Commissioner (Revenue), Mr. Md. Riaz Uddin, Additional Deputy Commissioner (General) and UNOs of Boda, Atwari, Panchagarh Sadar, Debiganj and Tetulia.

Bangladesh Center for Communication Programs (BCCP) facilitated the workshop under CPTU's Digitizing Implementation Monitoring and Public Procurement Project (DIMAPP) with support from the World Bank.

Mr. Badal Krishna Halder, Deputy Director, BCCP, delivered the welcome speech and made a presentation on GTF.  District GTF members were present. BCCP’s Program Manager Mr. Mohammad Abdus Salam moderated the event.

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

Mentioning the use of e-GP in procurement as one of the priorities of the government, he said currently a large portion of public procurement expenditure is done through e-GP.

Mentioning the progress of e-GP in a decade, he said since 2011, the number of tenders invited through e-GP system has exceeded 7 lakh 17 thousand and more than 106,756 tenderers have registered with the e-GP system. A total of 1,437 government procuring agencies have registered with the e-GP system.

Deputy Commissioner Md. Zahurul Islam said, now e-GP has got new features like e-CMS, tenderers database, ICB, audit manual and integration with iBAS++. Tenderers can now also pay e-GP registration, renewal, tender security and document purchase fees through iBAS++