Press Release

                                                              Workshop on Draft SPP Policy held

16 March 2023, Dhaka: A workshop on the draft of Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP) Policy was held on 16 March 2023, at the NEC Conference Room, Planning Commission Campus, She-e-Bangla Nagar in Dhaka.

The Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU) of Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED), Ministry of Planning, arranged the workshop under the Digitizing Implementation Monitoring and Public Procurement (DIMAPP) project supported by the World Bank.

The workshop was conducted with a view to finalizing the draft policy by taking opinions of representatives from various ministries, divisions and selected public sector organizations (SPSOs) having major stake in the value and volume of public procurement in the country.

Upon finalization, the SPP principles will gradually be addressed in public procurement framework. The SPP principles are expected to be piloted in paper and paper products, office supplies, computer and other electronic equipment and supplies, office and other furniture or related wooden appliances, vehicles and transportation equipment and official paper-made publications.

Honourable Minister of State, Ministry of Planning, Professor Dr. Shamsul Alam, was present in the workshop as the chief guest. Secretary, IMED, Mr. Abul Kashem Md Mohiuddin, presided over it.  He also delivered the Address of Welcome.

Director General of CPTU, Mr Mohammed Shoheler Rahman Chowdhury, gave a detailed presentation on the contents of draft SPP Policy. Lead Procurement Specialist, Mr Ahsan Ali, World Bank Dhaka office and Task Team Leader of DIMAPP Project and Senior Procurement Specialist Mr ANM Mustafizur Rahman spoke about WB involvement and  necessity of the policy.

Bangladesh is the first country in South Asia to adopt the SPP Policy.

The objective of the draft policy is to incorporate economic, social and environmental issues and some more important aspects like life-cycle cost of goods and services in the process of public procurement. Officials present in the workshop gave their opinions on the draft policy. The CPTU will now finalize the policy by considering observations made in the workshop.

Earlier, the CPTU drafted the policy under DIMAPP Project and posted it on CPTU website for public opinions. Based on those feedbacks, the CPTU revised it and again posted on the CPTU website.

The CPTU of IMED has been working on sustainable public procurement issues which are mentioned in 12.7 target of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Under the SDG, a sustainable public procurement system has to be established in the country by 2030. 

Press Release

Egypt procurement team learns about e-GP from CPTU

7 March 2023, Dhaka: A knowledge sharing delegation of public procurement officials from the Arab Republic of Egypt concluded its two-day visit to Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU) of Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) on 7 March 2023.

Since 2011, about 15 countries and international organizations visited CPTU for knowledge and experience sharing on public procurement reforms and electronic government procurement (e-GP) system in Bangladesh. In December 2022 another such team from the Republic of Mozambique had a three-day visit to CPTU.

The four-member delegation from Egypt was led by Ms. Leena Abbasy, Procurement Specialist of the World Bank. She is based in Baghdad, Iraq.

The Egypt delegation comprised Mr Mohamed Ousama of General Authority for Government Service (GAGS), Ministry of Finance, Ms Noha Taher Zaher of GAGS, Mr Mohamed Atef of GAGS and Mr. Ahmed Saad of GAGS. They attended some learning sessions over the two days on various aspects of e-GP at CPTU. The Ministry of Finance looks after public procurement in Egypt.

The team members wanted to know about the selection criteria of trainees in capacity building in e-GP, criteria for Sustainable Public Procurement Policy (SPP), framework agreements, annual procurement plans (APP) etc.

The team members also shared knowledge and ideas about e-GP implementation status in their country. Egypt got its procurement law in 2018 which has the provision for establishing e-GP. Therefore it is going to implement e-GP. At present, they only advertise their tender notices online but the rest of   activities are still done manually.

Egyptian procuring entities also have APP but they do not disclose any budget amount in the plans. In Bangladesh the APP contains a preliminary budget. However, an official cost estimate is done before particular procurement which remains confidential under Open Tender Method.

Egypt plans to pilot e-GP in its five large implementing agencies.  The World Bank will support e-GP implementation in e-GP.

On 7 March 2023, the visiting team had a meeting with Secretary, IMED Mr AKM Mohiuddin, at the CPTU Conference Room. The Secretary highlighted success of e-GP in Bangladesh. He said IMED and CPTU will provide necessary support, if needed, to Egypt in its bid to implement e-GP.   

They visited LGED on 6 March. The LGED has implemented e-GP in all its procurement.

Mr. Shoheler Rahman Chowdhury, Director General of CPTU of Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED), Ministry of Planning, chaired the learning sessions for the Egypt team at CPTU. He also made a presentation on overview of public procurement system in Bangladesh.

Director of CPTU, Mr Masud Akter Khan gave a presentation on communication and citizen engagement in public procurement and Director Mr Md. Shamimul Haque made a presentation on implementation of e-GP and CPTU projects.

Senior System Analyst of CPTU Mr. Md. Mosharraf Hussain gave an overview of e-procurement system in Bangladesh and made a demonstration of e-GP system. Hel also touched upon e-GP sustainability issues, maintenance and upgrades.

Mr. Nazmul Islam Bhuiyan, Deputy Team Leader and Senior Database Administrator, Dohatec New Media, engaged in e-GP operation and maintenance, elaborated on design, development and deployment of the system.

Mr Asad Ibne Moin, Senior IT Security Assurance Consultant, presented on e-GP security aspects and Mr Ashfakul Islam, Senior e-GP Adviser, gave a presentation regarding future thoughts on e-GP.

The two-day visit from 6 March to 7 March 2023 took place under the auspices of the World Bank. It has been providing technical support to CPTU to implement the Digitizing Implementation Monitoring and Public Procurement Project (DIMAPPP).

Mr. Ahsan Ali, Lead Procurement Specialist of World Bank Dhaka office and Mr Mustafizur Rahman, Task Team Leader of DIMAPPP and Senior Procurement Specialist of World Bank Dhaka Office, and other WB representatives were present during the visit of the Egypt delegation. 

The overall objective of the knowledge exchange was to build Egypt’s preparedness to design, develop, and implement electronic government procurement, with a focus on strengthening the institutional and technical capacity of public procurement officials in Egypt.

The Egyptian delegation expressed satisfaction and appreciated the e-GP system in Bangladesh. The members of the team visited the data centre and 24/7 e-GP Help Desk at CPTU.

The specific objectives of Egypt team’s visit were to learn from Bangladesh its journey to digitalize public procurement system, including design, development, implementation, and sustainability; gather advice/guidance from Bangladesh. It is envisioned that the interventions from Bangladesh will include advice/guidance for the Egyptians.

The CPTU has been implementing e-GP since 2011. Over the last several years it has added some new features to the system to make public procurement process and contract management fully digitalized. It has started inviting international competitive tender of Goods through e-GP system, launched electronic contract management system (e-CMS), e-Audit manual and tenderers’ database.

So far, about  6 lakh 70 thousand tenders have been invited through e-GP, more than one lakh tenderers and 1427procuring agencies have registered with the e-GP system since 2011. Honourable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the e-GP Portal on 2 June 2011. Bangladesh is now considered a global leader in electronic procurement. The CPTU is also working to fulfil the SDG targets on public procurement. It has already drafted a Sustainable Procurement Policy (SPP) under the DIMAPPP.

Egypt is taking steps to strengthen public procurement, most notably via the 2018 Public Procurement Law, which aims to achieve efficiency of public expenditure and enhance the principles of good governance, among several other objectives. In 2022, Egypt is working with the Korean Development Agency (KOICA) to introduce electronic procurement.

The World Bank supports Egypt’s efforts to introduce electronic procurement, as it is a key pillar to an efficient, transparent, and modern public procurement system. There are, however, serious challenges to designing, developing, and implementing electronic procurement, as evidenced by international experiences.

Date: 29 December 2022

Venue: CPTU Conference Room

Time: 3:00 PM

With profound respect, we remember the name of the Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who initiated the Project Implementation Bureau (PIB) in January 1975. Later, as the responsibilities and scope of work increased, in 1984 PIB was placed under the Ministry of Planning as Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED).

The 'Central Procurement Technical Unit' was established as a unit in IMED in the year 2002 with the overall responsibility of monitoring public procurement of the country. As a part of building Digital Bangladesh, Honorable Prime Minister and daughter of the Father of the Nation Sheikh Hasina launched the "National Electronic Government Procurement Portal" introduced by the CPTU on 2nd June 2011.

National Electronic Government Procurement Portal:

Currently, e-GP continues to expand. Till December 2022, the number of tenders invited through e-GP was about six lakh and a half (6.5 lakh). The number of registered tenderers was also more than one lakh. More than 6,500 branches of 59 banks are providing payment services to tenderers across the country. Online payment is also available.

In line with the Delta Plan, Rupkalpo (Vision) 2041, the five-year plan, the Annual Development Program (ADP), allocation is also increasing as the budget size increases every year. Along with that, the expenditure on public procurement is increasing. Forty-five per cent of the national budget and about 80 per cent of the ADP is being spent on public procurement. The procurement system is being made paperless by ensuring transparency, accountability, efficiency and free competition in public procurement management. Electronic Contract Management (e-CMS) system was launched for full implementation of e-GP in the last one year. A database of all registered tenderers of the country has been created. Processing of International Competitive Tenders (ICT) (Goods) and module have been introduced in e-GP. Besides e-GP is integrated with iBAS++. A-challan has been introduced for the online payment of e-GP registration, tender documents and related fees. The audit module has been launched to audit the procurement management of any procuring entities. Besides, e-GP has been integrated with national identity card. The e-GP system has not stopped functioning even for a day during the global COVID pandemic. The system has already received ISO certification.

Presently, 100% of tender advertisements and contracts processed through e-GP system are published and any citizen can see the relevant information. In case of tenders, 99% of Contracts (NOA) are awarded within the stipulated time.  An amount of BDT 400-450 crore of income is generating per year from this system. Total income up to December 2022 is BDT 1,961.03 crore (source: e-GP System). Also, the average prcourement processing time has come down to 58 days from 86.7 days. The use of e-GP system is saving USD 600 million annually, reducing tenderers’ travel distance by 497 million KM, saving 1,053 million pages of paper and reducing carbon emissions by 153,559 tons (MAP, World Bank, June 2020).

Activities related to citizen participation in public procurement:

Monitoring of selected contracts has been implemented through local citizens to check whether the implementation of public procurement contracts are maintaining the required standards. This program has been conducted in 48 upazilas of eight divisions and 16 districts. A total of 316 contracts/work were monitored in 48 upazilas. Based on the experience gained at the field level and taking suggestions from the relevant stakeholders, a model related to citizen engagement in public procurement has already been finalized.

Citizen portal on public procurement

A citizen portal called ' Sorkari Kroi Batayan' (https://citizen.cptu.gov.bd) has been launched to inform citizens about various information related to public procurement. A lot of information related to public procurement is now at the fingertips of citizens through this citizen portal named 'Sorkari Kroi Batayan'.

e-PMIS:

An online self-contained database and software e-PMIS (electronic project management information system) has been developed under the initiative of IMED to ensure immediate receipt and delivery of project related information in electronic system. Through the implementation of e-PMIS, along with the monitoring of ongoing development projects, the progress and current status of the project will be available through geo-tagging. This system will be integrated with various national systems like NID System, iBAS++, e-GP System, Project Planning System (PPS), ADP/ RADP Management System (AMS). At present, the work of e-PMIS system development is almost completed. Data entry of 3 projects of IMED and 32 projects of 8 sectors in e-PMIS is in progress. It will start its pilot program soon.

The project titled “Digitizing Implementation Monitoring and Public Procurement Project” is under implementation from July 2017 to December 2023. The project is achieving almost 100% targets (physical and financial) every year and is termed Satisfactory Project by the World Bank. In 2021, the World Bank awarded this project with the World Bank's Directors Award for being Most Innovative, Collaborative and Impactful Governance Global Practice Operations.

A dedicated 24-hour seven days help desk has been functioning at the Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU) of IMED, Ministry of Planning, for the smooth conduct of electronic government procurement (e-GP) in the country.

The e-GP Help Desk (helpdesk@eprocure.gov.bd), having a hunting number of +8809609 112233, is equipped with required resources and expertise. Recently, its capacity has been enhanced with more resources to cope with the growing number of registered and non-registered tenderers and procuring entities seeking support from various parts of the country. 

Tenderers or PEs who are yet to register also want to know from the Help Desk about the process of registration and operation in e-GP. Those who are registered make queries to the Help Desk if they face any difficulty and problems while processing or participating in e-GP tenders.

The Help Desk members provide instant info, solutions and advices to them. However, if the queries are about specific explanations of any section of the Public Procurement Act or Rules, the help seekers are requested to refer it to CPTU authorities.    

The government has decided to connect all procuring entities with e-GP system (www.eprocure.gov.bd) by December 2016. The CPTU has taken up an action plan to implement the decision.

The number of PEs and tenderers registering with the system is increasing day by day. The Help Desk is working non-stop 24 hours every-day to provide e-GP related information and solutions as and when the PEs and tenderers make queries on phone, email and mobile numbers.     

45 banks now connected to e-GP

A total of 45 banks are now connected to electronic government procurement (e-GP) system.

The Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU) of Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED), Ministry of Planning, is implementing e-GP in the country.

The banks are connected to e-GP under MoUs signed with CPTU to receive fees from tenderers’ for registration, registration renewal and tender documents in the e-GP system.

On May 18, 2017, CPTU signed a MoU with the NRB Global Bank. With the signing of this MoU the number of banks linked to e-GP has stood at 45. About 3000 branches of such banks are providing services to tenderers across country.

Secretary-in Charge of IME Division Md Mofizul Islam presided over the meeting organized by CPTU at its conference room on the occasion of the signing ceremony.

Senior System Analyst Md Mosharraf Hussain anchored the programme and facilitated introduction of the participants. CPTU officers were also present.

Deputy Managing Director of NRB Global Bank Kazi Mashiur Rahman Jayhad, Senior Executive Vice President & Manager Ataus Samad and other officers represented the bank in the MoU signing ceremony.

Director General of CPTU and Additional Secretary Md Faruque Hossain said at the beginning of the e-GP we had to pursue banks to join the system. Now banks are coming forward to join e-GP as they have found it a potential sector of doing business.

Deputy Managing Director of NRB Global Bank said that this is a fourth generation bank. It has the policy of having branches on an equal basis in rural and urban areas. He sought cooperation of CPTU in the operation of services for e-GP.

The IMED Secretary requested the bank to provide smooth services to tenderers. He laid emphasis on digital, easy, safe and transparent transactions of banks in the country.      

He said, “We have resource constraints and so we need to be careful about proper utilization money in public procurement.” Bangladesh now has an emerging economy and fiscal management needs to be prudent and transparent, he added.  

The DG, CPTU and the Deputy Managing Director of NRB Global Bank signed the MoU on behalf of their respective sides.

The Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU) of Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division, Ministry of Planning, formally gave away letter of selection to 21 newly certified national trainers on public procurement at its conference room on November 6, 2016.

With the latest addition, the total number of national certified trainers of CPTU on public procurement has now stood at 60.

The new trainers were selected through a rigorous selection process conducted at CPTU by ITC-ILO Turin University some months back.

The Director General of CPTU Md Faruque Hossain briefed the new national trainers on the occasion of giving away the letter of selection along with a code of conduct.

Director (Coordination) Md. Helal Uddin, Director (Rules & Training) Wahedun- Nabi Sarker, Director (e-GP) Aziz Taher Khan and Training Coordinator K. M. Ali Newaz of CPTU were present during the briefing.   

The DG, CPTU said that this is a short briefing for the new trainers as they are now ready to conduct training on public procurement. “We are planning to provide them further orientation on various issues including modules, documents etc. in December 2016. Later, there will be orientation for them on e-GP,” he noted.

Md Faruque Hossain said the trainers need to be aware of e-GP issues but the basis of public procurement is the law and rules. Therefore, they have to be conversant with the provisions of the Public Procurement Act-2006 and the Public Procurement Rules-2008.      

He said that the new trainers need to sharpen their skills and remain updated about national and international practices in the domain of public procurement.

The trainers proposed a professional platform for the national trainers on public procurement and exchange of knowledge among themselves. The DG, CPTU said he would take such issues into consideration.    

The DG, CPTU further said that a few trainers are not active now. “We have decided to remove the name and photo of those remaining inactive for three years, from the CPTU website,” he mentioned.