The electronic government procurement (e-GP) till date witnessed an exponential growth since its introduction in 2011 to conduct public procurement online as about 80 per cent of country's total public procurement up to the value of Tk 1.0 billion (Tk 100 crore) has come under e-GP till December 2017.
"The reason behind such a growth is accepted by private sector tenderers and government procuring entities because they wanted a system in tendering process which will be free from any physical obstruction, influence and hassles," said Md Faruque Hossain, Director General of Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU) of Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) under the Ministry of Planning, reports BSS.
Talking to the national news agency, he said: "The e-GP success has earned accolade at home and abroad. Bangladesh is in a leading position in e-GP implementation in South Asia and beyond."
The CPTU introduced e-GP in 2011 in order to conduct public procurement more efficiently with enhanced transparency and accountability.
Upon inauguration of the e-GP portal hosted at www.eprocure.gov.bd by the Prime Minister on June 2, 2011, tender through online was first invited on August 23, 2011. On January 25, 2011 e-GP Guidelines was issued in line with the Public Procurement Act-2006 and Public Procurement Rules-2008.
Operationalisation of procurement law, rules, e-GP Guidelines and capacity building of procuring entities and tenderers are the major agenda of a series of reforms implemented by CPTU with the support of World Bank under the Public Procurement Reform Project.
The reforms in public procurement started from 2002 with the establishment of CPTU as a nodal office to regulate and monitor compliance with the law and rules.
The e-GP system was rolled out in 2012 to four large agencies such as Local Government Engineering Department (LGED), Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board (BREB), Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) and Roads and Highways Department (RHD).
The agencies have implemented e-GP 100 per cent up to the value of Tk 1.0 billion (Tk 100cr). Since 2012, e-GP growth started skyrocketing and it was implemented in other government procuring agencies.
In all, e-GP coverage is 40 per cent of total volume of public procurement. It is growing fast. In 2017, CPTU took up another project titled, "Digitizing Implementation Monitoring and Public Procurement Project (DIMAPPP)" in association with World Bank for full implementation of e-GP.
Asked about the future agenda of CPTU, Faruque said more reforms will be implemented under DIMAPPP. In line with SDG target for public procurement, steps will be taken to make it sustainable.
