Hon. Planning Minister MA Mannan MP on 13 April 2023 delivered a speech as the chief guest at the 16th meeting of PPSC at NEC Conference Room. The speech is available in Bangla version.

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Speech of the chief guest Honorable Minister of State for

Planning, Dr. Shamsul Alam, in the workshop on the Draft

Sustainable Public Procurement Policy

Date: 16 March 2023

Time: 10:30 AM

Venue: NEC Conference Room

• The chair of the today’s workshop IMED Secretary;
• Director General, CPTU;
• IMED and CPTU officials;
• Officials from different ministries and divisions;
• Public procurement experts;
• National procurement trainers;
• Representatives of the SPSOs under the CPTU project;
• Representatives from the World Bank.

Assalamu Alaikum and Good Morning.

I am very pleased to be present at this workshop today. The workshop is important as we embark on the journey towards achieving our Vision 2041. To make the vision come true we have to implement our ongoing eighth five-year plan and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030.

Our action plan is defined on the basis of that. In this context SDG's sustainable procurement target of 12.7 has come before us. The target encourages sustainable public procurement practices that are consistent with national policies and priorities.

As all you know, Honorable Prime Minister has repeatedly said that we would start our journey as a developing country in 2026. And by 2037, we will be one of the top 20 developed economies in the world. By 2041 we will become Smart Bangladesh.

Keeping this in mind, CPTU has drafted the Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP) Policy. Earlier, it has been made available on the CPTU website for feedback from concerned stakeholders and citizens. Based on the feedback received, the draft of this SPP Policy has been revised and presented to you.

Today’s workshop aims to finalize this policy. Because we will not be able to achieve SDGs by 2030 in public procurement if we cannot start its implementation in time at the national level.

You have given different opinions on this policy. Through these, various positive and negative aspects have been highlighted. Based on your opinions, we hope to finalize a flawless and implementable policy. As you know, policy implementation is much more difficult than formulation.

Sustainable public procurement means that procurement is done taking into account economic, social and environmental issues. Public procurement now accounts for about 45 percent of the national budget. And 80 percent of the Annual Development Program (ADP) allocation is spent on procurement of various goods, works and services.

In the fiscal year 2001-02, the total expenditure on public procurement was around BDT 19 thousand crore. In the current financial year 2022-23 as estimated this expenditure may increase to BDT 2 lakh 21 thousand 500 crore. Hence, establishing good governance in this huge expenditure and sustainability with all necessary considerations is essential.

You all are aware of the of ongoing development works in the country. Public procurement is a major part of project implementation. I am happy to know that CPTU has implemented and continues to implement several reform programs aimed at establishing good governance in public procurement. One of these is the digitization of public procurement.

You all are aware of its benefits. The implementation of this electronic procurement or e-GP by the government has increased transparency, accountability and competition in public procurement. Procurement lead time reduced from 100 days to 57 days.

Publication of tender advertisements and disclosure of contract award information are two of the major indicators of transparency in public procurement. Before introducing e-GP, In 2007, the tender advertisement publication rate was 70 percent, which is 100 percent now in 2023. The disclosure rate for contract awards was 15 percent. Currently it is 100 percent.

In terms of efficiency, 10 percent of contracts were executed within the initial validity period of tenders in 2007. In 2023 it has increased to 99.67 percent. The average number of competitors in each tender was 3 in 2007. Currently it has increased to 19.

e-GP is saving USD 600 million annually. Travel distance reduced by about 497 KM. 1053 million pages of paper saved. About 1 lakh 53 thousand tonnes of carbon dioxide emission has decreased. e-GP is saving both time and money.

These achievements must be made sustainable. One of its aspects is to take into consideration the entire life cycle Cost of each procurement. So, you all understand that we are going to make some changes or revisions in our policy regarding public procurement.

The views and opinions you have given will be very helpful in this regard. I end here by thanking everyone including CPTU.

Allah Hafiz.

Joy Bangla, Joy Bangabandu.

May Bangladesh live forever.

Date: 07 March 2023

Time: 10:30 AM

Place: CPTU

BISMILLAHIR RAHMANER RAHIM

• Director General of CPTU
• My colleagues at IMED and CPTU;
• Ms. Leena Abbasy from the World Bank
• Members of the delegation from the Arab Republic of Egypt;
• Other representatives from the World Bank;

Assalamu Alaikum and Good Morning.

It is a great pleasure for me to welcome the Egypt delegation on public procurement to IMED and congratulate the members of the team that had an exchange of ideas and learning from CPTU over the last several days on reforms and digitization of public procurement.

I am happy to share with you that since the introduction of electronic government procurement (e-GP) in Bangladesh in 2011, about 15 countries and international organizations have so far visited CPTU of IMED to observe and learn about implementation of e-GP here.

Your visit also signifies the importance you are attaching to observe our system and I believe over the last three days you have been able to take stock of the e-GP system you are now going to implement in your country.

The e-GP system has brought about a historic change in our public procurement that amounts to more than 25 billion US dollars a year. It is increasing every year with our annual national budget and Annual Development Programme (ADP) having an upward leap. I understand you have already come to know the benefits and progress of the e-GP system from the DG CPTU.

You know public procurement is the corner stone of good governance. Our government is committed to ensuring good governance in all sectors including public procurement. Therefore, we have opted for digitization in our public service delivery. The Honorable Prime Minister is personally very interested in digitizing public procurement.

Now we are working for a sustainable public procurement policy (SPP) system. The SPP policy has already been drafted. By 2030 we need to implement the SPP Policy. The vision of our government is to build a Smart Bangladesh by 2041 when economy and society will have a digital culture. We have advanced a lot in digitization as part of a vision to build Digital Bangladesh by 2021.

Some unforeseen challenges are there like COVID pandemic and other global issues. Despite all such limitations Bangladesh is going forward with huge development activities done and to be done. You may have heard of our projects like Padma Bridge, Metro Rail and Bangabandhu Tunnel.

At IMED we have started implementing electronic project management information system or e-PMIS. This is being implemented under the DIMAPP Project supported by the World Bank.

Through this e-PMIS project monitoring can also be done online. Project Directors will update the implementation of projects in the system. IMED will be able to see and intervene, if necessary for proper implementation.  

I would like to extend my sincere thanks to the World Bank for their continued support to our journey to procurement reforms and digitization.

My heartfelt thanks to the government of Egypt and members of the delegation for their keen interest in our e-GP system. I hope you have availed of knowledge and ideas about the system from CPTU. At IMED we are always open and sincere in providing you necessary supports for your efforts to digitize your procurement system.

Thank you again for visiting Bangladesh, IMED and CPTU. I wish you a success in your mission.

ALLAH HAFEZ.    

Concluding remarks by Mr. Mohammed Shoheler Rahman Chowdhury, Director General of CPTU and Additional Secretary, as the chair of a National Seminar on Social Awareness and Citizen Engagement in Public Procurement on 31 October 2022 at Sheraton Dhaka.

During the recent past, a number of major tasks have been accomplished by CPTU. Although you know about all such activities, I would like to reiterate these. All these are mammoth tasks and done with all-out efforts of all for quite a long period of time. Some features have been developed and updated in e-GP and I request all concerned including the tenderers to utilize the facilities incorporated within the system.

1. Tenderers’ Database

First of all, I would like to mention tenderers’ database. Through a circular, we requested tenderers to upload information about their past experiences for the incorporation in the database. We are receiving responses from the tenderers. The sooner they do it, the faster their data would be uploaded and there will be no more problems regarding this.

The information about the previous experience of tenderers would be automatically generated from the system and it would not require for them to go to anyone else.

The records of tenderers’ previous experiences need to be sent to Procuring Entities (PEs) through the system. Once PEs endorse, those will be accepted in the system.

This will simplify the tasks of both the PEs and the tenderers as all the required data will be stored in the database. For submitting tender for any particular number of works, tenderers can just do mapping of the required experience documents stored in the system and complete the process without any hassles. 

2. A Challan

A Challan is another milestone achievement of CPTU. At present, for collecting tender documents, tenderers need to go to bank to deposit fees and collect payment slip. Later, they need to go to the office of the PEs and wait there until they (PEs) allow and only then tenderers can enter the system and download the tender document. Now, they don’t need to go to any bank anymore and can download tender documents in five minutes by making payment through A Challan just working in laptops at their offices. This is very easy and cost effective and has reduced hassles as it is not needed for tenderers to run to banks. A Challan has simplified payment of tender document fees, registration fees, renewal fees, etc to make tenderers’ life comfortable.  

I request all leading tenderers to convey to others that all tender-related fees can be paid through A Challan by using any debit/credit cards, Bikash, Rocket or Nagad services.

3. Direct Procurement Method (DPM)

We have also introduced Direct Procurement Method (DPM) in the system. There are two types of arrangements for DPM - for the PEs who want to do it at their own costs by using funds of the Government of Bangladesh (GoB), and also who want to do it by using funds of the development partners. I request representatives of the ADB to advise procuring entities to do DPM from the system. The CPTU is ready to provide any sort of cooperation. Primarily, there might have some problems initially and if they communicate with us, then we will provide all necessary supports as we are committed t that.

4. International Competitive Bidding (ICB)

We have recently introduced International Competitive Bidding (ICB). CPTU is the pioneer in this area as we are the first to invite a tender through ICB with approval of Secretary, IMED, thanks to him. We first planned paper-based international tendering, and later we decided to do it through ICB so that we can fix any problems, if arises, and make it convenient for other users. We have already published our tender through ICB model. I also request others to use ICB model incorporated in the system. For this also, there are two options – any PE who uses ICB through GoB funds will find one type of tender document while other who is using funds of the development partners will find separate tender document. I request development partners to inform their concerned PEs about this. The course module of ICB is done and works module is under preparation. And it will be completed soon. You know, always there is a crisis with currency regarding multiple currency issue and we are very close to resolving this.

5. Electronic Contract Management System (e-CMS)

Another important development has been made for which we were working for over two years. That is electronic contract management system (e-CMS). Till date, through the e-GP system, it was possible to conduct procurement up to contract signing stage, but it was not compatible with the following parts of the process. But with the introduction of e-CMS, you can now also perform contract management through e-GP. This will take you towards automatic contract management system after its signing. With this, the work program and validation order and other complex issues at the management stage can be done through e-CMS automatically as all documents are in the system and also the provision for uploading those are required. The entire public procurement cycle, starting from procurement planning to contract management has now been completed. One issue we have done with the Finance Division. If the Finance Division integrates it with our system, which is at final stage now. I hope it will be done soon. When a tenderer generates a bill, it will enter e-GP system from the PEs and enter into the iBAS system. Then the concerned official of the PE will scrutinize it and send fund to the accounts of the tenderers through iBAS. These are all major tasks and I request you to take advantage of all those.

Besides iBAS, many departments have their own cheque issuing authority, and there are provisions so that they can make payment through their system.

We have successfully worked with REB and they have already done two to three contracts using e-CMS through their own payment system. So, there is no need to go to treasury or using special account. Working to make it foolproof. Even if you face any problem, come to CPTU and we will instantly resolve that.

6. Electronic Audit

Another big task we have completed – that is electronic audit. Now we will incorporate it partially in the system. At present, our officials go to the audit office and submit or download huge volume of papers for auditing. They evaluate all documents and then prepare the audit report. With this system, it will not be needed to take all those papers anymore. We will incorporate up to contract management part with the e-Audit system within three months. There are challenges for the rest of the parts and we are working on it to overcome those. With completion of e-Audit, then no PEs will need to go to audit office for procuring audit. They can do from their office as they will have access to all documents in the system. Auditors can generate audit reports based on the documents stored in the system. Hope e-Audit can be completed soon and with this entire audit from procurement planning to completion can be audited through this system. There will be no scope for paper work and it will be paperless.

This will reduce the lead-time of procurement completion as well as make life of all engaged in the process comfortable.

7. NID integration

We are at the finale stage of NID integration.

For making procurement system secured, we need to confirm identity of tenderers and for this we are making the system integrated with NID. For this we had several meetings with the Election Commission. We paid required fees for this purpose.

You know, there are many groups – procuring entities, bankers, tenderers, and we have integrated all to bring them together. Later, those who will get access into the system, their NID will be automatically authenticated from the system of the EC.

We have lots of things to be completed and so there is no reason to feel over satisfied as every day is a challenging day. And we have to do a lot of things. All these are in our agenda.

• We couldn’t yet provide the service module. We have to give it. Besides, we couldn’t yet provide framework agreement. Will try to give it soon.
• Another huge task is remaining, that is updating our system. You know, this was developed in 2011. By this time, IT sector has made remarkable improvement.
• This is essential to upgrade the e-GP system by incorporating all latest applications with upgradation and innovations.
• We will upgrade the system from monolithic to multi-serviced one. With this, many of our problems will be solved. The system will be much faster than at present as you often find it not speedy as expected.
• Bangladesh for the first time is going to start a new journey. That is Sustainable Public Procurement. As this is related to SDG 12: Responsible consumption and production. And we are directly related with SDG - 12.7 target and indicator on Sustainable Public Procurement implementation.
• We are working on it and already have developed a concept note or policy note on this. We have developed this policy note aiming at making public procurement sustainable.
• All associated consultants including dNet, BIGD and BCCP worked with us and suggested to improve public procurement environment.

Speech by the Chair, Mr. A H M Mustafa Kamal FCA MP, Honorable Minister, Ministry of Planning, at the Launching of “Digitizing Implementation Monitoring and Public Procurement Project”

October 25, 2017 at 6:00pm

Radisson Blu Dhaka Water Garden

• Honorable Finance Minister, Mr. Abul Maal Abdul Muhith MP
• Honorable State Minister  for Finance & Planning Mr Abdul Mannan MP
• Country Director of the World Bank Bangladesh Mr Qimiao Fan
• Director, Global Governance Practice, World Bank Mr Vinoy Sharma
• Secretary, IMED
• Secretaries of various ministries
• Heads of procuring agencies
• Representatives of business associations
• Representatives of various Development partners
• Members of Civil society
• Members  of Print & electronic media
• Ladies and Gentlemen;

 Assalamu Alaikum and a very Good Evening.

At the outset I would like to extend my sincere thanks to you all for your enthusiastic participation in today’s launching of DIMAPPP.

Over the last one hour you have heard excellent remarks and speeches by the distinguished guests. You have also witnessed a presentation by the DG, CPTU, signing of a MoU and also launching of CPTU’s new website. I am really grateful to you and particularly to our honourable Finance Minister for his kind presence and valuable words.

Our friends from World Bank are here. They are co-operating the government in various projects and programmes. I appreciate them for their cooperation in our efforts to make public procurement efficient in Bangladesh.

What often I emahasize about public procurement is to minimize the waste of our funds and maximize the utilization. Because our goal for prosperity is set and I am sure we will achieve it as per our roadmap. You see the World Bank and major global forum are recognizing our efforts and progress.

Bangladesh has entered the club of 100 competitive countries of the world, according to World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report 2017-18. We have advanced in Global Hunger Index. Our hardcore poverty rate dropped to 12.9 per cent in 2017 from 17.6 per cent in 2010.

The Vision for a Digital Bangladesh has achieved significant progress and people are now enjoying the benefits of government steps in digitization.

The launching of this project here today is also directed towards digitization of our public procurement. In the current SDG there is a mention of public procurement in 12.7 of the targets to establish sustainable public procurement. The CPTU under the auspices of IMED is responsible for this. Through this project capacity of all concerned will be enhanced in procurement management, e-GP will be expanded further and project monitoring by IMED will also be digitized;.

We face great challenges in ensuring quality implementation of projects. The oversight functions at the agency level need to be strengthened to overcome it.

Ladies and gentlemen;

You have already known the benefits of e-GP in our public procurement. The system is self-compliant with the required parameters of timeliness and monitoring indicators. Therefore, there is no scope for any intentional or unintentional delay in procurement process.

I believe, if we can bring entire public procurement under e-GP system, we can get rid of many hassles and flaws.

Distinguished Guests; 

In this era of technology, you all are aware that some of Bangladeshi professionals are making significant contributions abroad in various areas. In astrophysics, electronics engineering, physics and health, five innovations by Bangladeshi scientists drew global attention in 2016.  I just mentioned these before you to let you know the potentials Bangladesh has.

And I am optimistic we will reach our vision for Digital Bangladesh 2021 and a rich nation by 2041. Our growth records have made us hopeful. With this hope I want to appeal to all procuring agencies to ensure value for public money that you need to ensure right price in right quantity with right quality.

I thank you all for attending today’s launching programme. The project starts with the objective of improving overall management of public procurement. I believe with your support we will be able to make it happen.   THANK YOU AGAIN

The government of Bangladesh has operationalized the Public Procurement Act 2006 and the Public Procurement Rules 2008 to establish greater transparency in spending public funds and improve service delivery. The public procurement regime composed of PPA and PPR has addressed the domestic realities as well as best global practices.

Public procurement management has improved significantly due to adherence to the unified law and rules effective since 2008.

The Public procurement is conducted through a process having some important steps which are recognized as the best practices in achieving a greater degree of transparency, efficiency, economy and effectiveness. Most significant steps ensuring transparency are as follows;

1. Public procurement plan at the agency level is taken and made publicity through website much ahead of advertisements for tender notices (Section 11(4) of PPA);
2. Advertisements inviting tenders are published in widely circulated two dailies and CPTU website (Section 40 of PPA), published in DG Market/UN Gallery in case of International Tender);
3. Tenderers are allowed sufficient time(Rule 61(4) of PPR) to prepare and submit their tenders following different thresholds;
4. Clarifications regarding any points of tender conditions are provided to tenderers (Section 45 of PPA) upon their queries;
5. Provision for pre-tender meeting exists and based on the feedbacks of the participating tenderers clauses of tender may also be changed to ensure wider competitions (Section 44 (4) of PPA);
6. Tender is opened publicly while competitive method is followed (Section 47 of PPA)
7. Evaluation is done only on the basis of pre-discussed criteria and documents submitted by the tenderers (Section 48 of PPA).   
8. Tenderers can also lodge complaints if they are aggrieved by any decision of the procuring entity. They can first lodge complaints at the administrative level of the procuring entity and if not satisfied, to the Review Panel at CPTU (Section 29 & 30 of PPA);

9. Contract award information is shared with all contending tenderers (Section 53 of PPA);

10. Tenderer may seek the reasons for not awarding him and PE is obliged to let him know (Rule 37 (4) of PPR;
11. Procuring entity arranges debriefing session for all participating tenderers after the award where explanation for award and limitations of others are given so that they can overcome in their next attempts.      

The above steps are followed to ensure transparency and accountability in the process of public procurement which the GoB has now transformed into a digital domain, ICT based procurement process called e-GP. The digitization has further increased competition, efficiency and removed physical obstructions in the processing of public procurement.

The Central Procurement Technical Unit of Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED), Ministry of Planning, started piloting of electronic government procurement (e-GP) in 2011 in four target agencies.

The agencies are Bangladesh Water Development Board, Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board, Local Government and Engineering Department and Roads and Highways Department.

Building on the successful piloting, e-GP was rolled out to other agencies in 2012. Since then e-GP has seen an exponential growth both in terms of value and volume.

Until May 9, 2017 as many as 1081 out of about 1300 procuring agencies (PAs) were registered.  The rest are set to get connected soon. The broad modules of e-GP are Procurement Planning, e-Tendering, e-Contract management & e-Performance Management 

Up to May 9, 2017, a total of 32,528 tenderers registered with the e-GP system. More than 95,350 tenders were invited through e-GP system. The total estimated value of such tenders is overTK 84,037 crore.

As per a government decision CPTU is connecting all PAs to e-GP and giving them necessary training for e-GP operation.

The electronic government procurement has been introduced as per 65(1) of the Public Procurement Act 2006.

New wider capacity data centre has been established at the Bangladesh Computer Council and CPTU. The new data centre has a storage capacity of 200 terabyte.

A 24-hour/7 Help Desk is working at CPTU. A mobile app on public procurement is also functioning for viewing e-GP tender notices and contacting e-GP help desk and CPTU. 

Piloting of citizen engagement in public procurement has also been done which provided positive results. The CPTU is now preparing for scaling up the citizen engagement for external oversight by the citizen groups at the local level.

Remarks of IME Division Secretary at the Wrap-up Meeting of DIMAPP Mission

Date: March 9, 2017

Time: 9:30am

Venue: CPTU Conference Room

• Director (Coordination), CPTU;
• Lead Procurement Specialist of World Bank Dr Zafrul Islam and other members of the DIMAPP Mission;
• My Colleagues at IME Division;
• Representatives of various Ministries, Divisions and Departments;
• Consultants under PPRP-II;

Assalamu Alaikum and a very good morning.

I am glad to be here at the closing of the World Bank Mission on formulation of a new project called Digitizing Implementation Monitoring and Public Procurement. I know that the mission started on 26 February and its members led by the Task Team Leader Dr Zafrul Islam have worked over the last two weeks to finalize components and key activities of DIMAPP.

I came to know the new project has taken an attempt to expand its target procuring agencies to 20 in place of 4 under the existing Public Procurement Reform Project-II. The PPRP-II is set to end in June this year and I am hopeful its objectives are going to be achieved.

The main objective of the new project is to expand digitization of public procurement as well as project implementation monitoring of the IME Division.

I would like to say challenges are there. But we must overcome the challenges because there is no way to come back from our journey towards digitization. You know, our government is pledge-bound to build Digital Bangladesh to reach public services to doorsteps of the people. And the services need to be free from all hassles.

We have introduced electronic government procurement or e-GP under the PPRP-II. We have been very successful in the procurement process starting from planning up to contract award. Now we need to include contract management in e-GP and full implementation of the electronic procurement system. This e-GP has been quickly and widely embraced by procuring agencies and tenderers.

We call e-GP simple, secure and speedy.

Until now more than 1000 out of a total of 1233 procuring agencies have been connected to e-GP. Over 29 thousand tenderers have registered with e-GP system. The number of tenders invited through e-GP is more than 84 thousand and their total value is over 76 thousand crore taka.

Now a wider-capacity data centre has been established which will start functioning in a couple of months and hopefully we will be able to bring the entire volume of public procurement in e-GP in 2017.

Therefore, we are now at a very crucial stage. You know the Prime Minister’s Office is directly monitoring implementation progress of e-GP. Moreover, I would say, the whole nation is watching our activities because this tender is one of the areas that suffered from lack of transparency, accountability and efficiency.

I believe, by the implementation of PPRP-II, we have improved a lot. Training is being imparted to procurement officers and tenderers in both rules and e-GP. Awareness about the need for a transparent procurement system has also increased. We need to consolidate now and make efforts to sustain what we have so far achieved.

In this context, the DIMAPP is important. I am happy that this project would try to digitize implementation monitoring of IMED. Well, I think this is very urgent. Nowadays, I believe a major part of monitoring could be done online and through video conference.

You know, IMED has taken an initiative to implement PMIS. If we can monitor projects properly and guide the implementing agencies in the right direction, I am sure this will bring good results. This e-GP system can have a linkage with PMIS so that we can also track any flaws or delay in procurement process. Often delays escalate costs and project implementation suffers seriously.   

I would like to thank the World Bank that they have consistently been supporting the government in its efforts to improve governance in public procurement and its digitization. Now I believe through the adoption and implementation of DIMAPP we will be able to accomplish the rest of our tasks.

We also need to strengthen CPTU for effective regulation and monitoring of public procurement. As part of this an initiative has been taken up to give CPTU more autonomy by turning it into a public procurement authority and corporatization of e-GP as well. However, in doing this we have to consider the pros and cons to arrive at a decision. I am hopeful that we will proceed in the right direction.

I extend my sincere thanks to DIMAPP Mission team for their stock-taking of PPRP-II progress and assessment of requirements for the new project. I also thank all those in the government, private sector, tenderers, civil society and media who have contributed by giving inputs to the process for preparation of the new project.

I hope together we will succeed.

THANK YOU ALL.