The government has allowed the people to access the public procurement data for ensuring transparency in its purchases.
The Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU) of the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) of the planning ministry launched a citizen portal (citizen.cptu.gov.bd) in this regard on Wednesday in Dhaka.
The IMED's outgoing secretary Abul Mansur Md Faizullah, ndc inaugurated the portal.
From the portal, the citizens would get information about countrywide procurement of goods, works and services.
The portal also allows customization or search function through features as sorting or filtering as well as graphically present data. They can remain updated on different steps of procurement in their localities as well.
In addition, citizens can also interact through citizen blogs and CPTU social media that are connected with this portal. Through the platform, citizens can raise their voice and put their observations on public procurement.
Policy makers, officials of procuring entities, experts, researchers and others will be able to download procurement data following the Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) to conduct analysis and research work, and understand procurement performance.
Mr Faizullah said the interactive web portal would enhance transparency and accountability in the process of public procurement by providing relevant information in line with the Right to Information Act.
Currently, only the government officials concerned and the procurement entities can see the data.
The IMED secretary said: "This is a part of the government's commitment to let people know about the public expenditure because people have the right to know how their money is spent on procurement."
About 80 per cent of the Annual Development Programme (ADP) and 45 per cent of the total national budget are spent on public procurement.
The CPTU has developed the citizen portal under the Digitizing Implementation Monitoring and Public Procurement Project (DIMAPPP) supported by the World Bank.
Director General of CPTU Shoheler Rahman Chowdhury chaired the virtual inauguration programme of the web portal.
Local IT company, Dnet, has developed the portal for the CPTU.
Task Team Leader of DIMAPPP and Senior Procurement Specialist of the World Bank Ishtiak Siddique said that this is a big step for improving transparency and efficiency in public procurement and contract implementation.
The portal also has extensive provision to analyse procurement data and take policy decisions to improve procurement and implementation performance.
Mr Siddique said that utilisation of data analytics could help reduce 5-10 per cent cost in procurement.
According to the CPTU, the citizen portal on public procurement is linked to the CPTU website. The portal will be updated with information mainly from the e-GP system.
Apart from that, the CPTU publishes information from different sources such as government agencies, citizen engagement platforms on public procurement etc., it said.
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