Speakers at a workshop on Tuesday stressed the need for enhancing the structural and legal capacity of the Bangladesh Public Procurement Authority (BPPA) to strictly monitor public procurement.
The BPPA should bring necessary changes in procurement rules so that entrants and small contractors could get opportunities in public development works, they told the stakeholder consultation workshop held in the capital.
As the chief guest, State Minister for Planning Zonayed Abdur Rahim Saki said such consultations were essential to identify the institutional and regulatory reforms required to build a stronger, more effective procurement authority.
The workshop, organised by the BPPA, focused on enhancing the electronic Government Procurement (e-GP) system, strengthening e-GP monitoring, and expanding the institutional capacity of the authority.
Saki said the consultation aimed to assess the capacity requirements of the BPPA and explore ways to ensure greater fairness and competition by creating opportunities for new entrants in public procurement.
"To achieve this, we need to amend both the Public Procurement Act and the Public Procurement Rules," he said.
He observed that public procurement had gradually become concentrated among a limited group of participants over the years and stressed the need to remove barriers to ensure a more competitive and inclusive procurement environment.
The workshop was chaired by BPPA Chief Executive Officer SM Moin Uddin Ahmed, while Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) Secretary Shirajun Noor Chowdhury attended as the special guest.
More than 30 representatives from procuring entities, business associations, government agencies, the private sector, academia, and the media participated in the consultation.
The BPPA CEO said the authority was committed to transforming the existing e-GP platform into a technology-driven, citizen-centric, and fully automated procurement system.
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