e-GP project going on at a snail’s pace

Shamsul Huda | Published: October 25, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00

The electronic government procurement (e-GP) project, aimed at ensuring good governance by replacing the current complex tendering system with an easy and accessible one, is going on at a snail's pace.Â Â
The online-based system is yet to gain a firm footing in absence of sufficient training of the people related with the procurement and tendering process.
According to official sources, the government planned to bring 96 state-owned organisations under e-GP by 2016; but progress is limited within only four major organisations with some 70 per cent of their tenders being floated through the national web portal.
An official at the Central Procurement and Technical Unit (CPTU) under the planning ministry said at the initial stage the progress is slow as it needs training of the officials, constructing online infrastructure and coordination between private and public organisations.
He said, "As we have already built the e-GP infrastructure and a good number of officials have been trained, so the progress will gain speed in the coming days."
As per the CPTU statistics, until today all the targeted 96 organisations have already been enlisted under the e-GP net and the maximum progress of e-tendering is made in the four pilot organisations.
Of the listed organisations, e-tendering is also going on in 24 other entities and there is about 20 per cent progress in their total tendering and procurement.
The government took the initiative to introduce electronic procurement to reduce corruption and discrepancies in the tendering and procurement process.
Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) executive director Mustafizur Rahman said once the e-GP system is introduced, it would bring transparency in the government's procurement and create an example within the government.
Director General of the CPTU Faruque Hossain said they started with four organisations and up until now 96 state-owned institutions are enlisted with the CPTU for e-GP.
He said 32 state-owned and private banks have also been enlisted with the e-GP portal in two gateway systems to facilitate their clients' business with the government.
Another CPTU official said though the World Bank (WB) is helping the e-GP project, funding from the government's side is not enough and it is yet to train its officials in a large scale.
He said progress is not possible overnight; as it is a matter of implementing the system among the stakeholders, procuring entities and government organisations.
The CPTU official said: "We have fixed the prices of the e-tender schedules and there is no scope for extortion, mismanagement and manipulation in our system."
He said as the major banks are under the e-GP, so it is a good opportunity for the stakeholders to do business with the government though the e-tendering process.
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