Secretary, Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED), Mr. Abul Kashem Md. Mohiuddin, under the Ministry of Planning said, every citizen is a partner of the country’s development. The government is working to take the country to a unique height with collective efforts of all citizens.

He said this while speaking as the chief guest at an awareness workshop on electronic Government Procurement (e-GP) in the conference room of the office of Deputy Commissioner, Chandpur on 2 December 2023.

Bangladesh Public Procurement Authority (BPPA), formerly CPTU, conducted the workshop under the Digitizing Implementation Monitoring and Public Procurement Project (DIMAPPP) with the support of World Bank. Bangladesh Center for Communication Programs (BCCP) facilitated it.

The objective of the awareness workshop was to identify problems in e-GP at the field level, take suggestions of stakeholders about improvement of the system and share progress and success of e-GP with them.

Chief Executive Officer of BPPA Mr. Mohammed Shoheler Rahman Chowdhury presided over the workshop. Deputy Commissioner of Chandpur Kamrul Hasan and Superintendent of Police Mohammad Saiful Islam spoke as special guests.

The secretary said, “The e-GP system introduced on June 2, 2011 has moved ahead. Everything will progress now.

Mentioning directives of the Honorable Prime Minister, he said, the contractors working through e-GP must not be awarded works beyond a certain number or sum of money per year. “We are working on how to implement this,” he said.

The secretary said, “Before introduction of the e-GP system we often used to see clashes over tender submission. To check these, the police force had to perform the duty during tendering. But it no longer exists. The police are now devoting their time to other activities.”

He said, the number of projects under the present Annual Development Programme is 1,400. It is very challenging to monitor those physically. “That is why we have to collect information on projects through district administration. Even after that, central level monitoring team needs to make field visits. Now to make it easier we have started electronic Project Management Information System (e-PMIS) to track implementation online.”

“The main purpose of discussing with you is to identify the problems as those can’t be determined sitting in Dhaka. Many issues have come up in today's workshop,” said the Secretary.

Mr. Shoheler Rahman Chowdhury conducted the question-answer session. He said, “We have progressed a lot in e-GP.”

The government earns Taka 400 crore in revenue from e-GP every year. Efficiency, transparency and accountability in e-GP have increased. The e-GP system is playing an important role in building Digital Bangladesh. About 65 per cent of the country's procurement is done through e-GP. So far, 37,000 users have received training on e-GP.

The Deputy Commissioner said, “All of us are somehow involved in e-GP. The system that started in 2011 has been implemented in 90 per cent of government offices.”

Superintendent of Police said, the workshop gave an opportunity to learn many unknown facts. The police department has benefited the most from e-GP. Because earlier the police had to perform the duty of securing tendering process. Many offices asked for police force as there have been many incidents of snatching tenders. “In my opinion, there should be no syndicate in e-GP now,” he observed.

Dr. Zeenat Sultana, Program Director, BCCP, made a presentation on e-GP. The workshop featured two short videos on e-GP.

Representatives of procuring entities, tenderers, journalists and bankers attended the workshop in Chandpur.