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All public procurement under online tender


Published : 01 Dec 2019 09:27 PM | Updated : 06 Sep 2020 10:31 AM

In a bid to eliminate tender manipulation as well as fulfill the purpose of introducing e-Government Procurement (e-GP) or online tender, the government is planning to bring all types of tenders, including limited (LTM) and international under online system. As part of the government initiative to build a digital Bangladesh, the government introduced Electronic Government Procurement or e-GP to ensure transparency and eradicate corruption in government purchasing. But it is seen that many of the government divisions and departments are yet to introduce e-GP in their offices even in last 8 years.

Persons concerned opine that a section of corrupt and dishonest government officials are working behind not to introduce e-GP in those offices. It is also alleged that only a fistful of organisations get almost 90 percent of the government tenders regularly due to various complexity in the process of ongoing online or manual process, sources said.

There are two types of system in government procurement – open tender method (OTM) and limited tender method (LTM). In OTM method the estimated cost of the government procurement is not mentioned while in LTM method the estimated cost of the procurement is mentioned. A government office can procure up to Taka 3 crore in LTM method and the experience of the contractor organisation in this regard is not essential.

In the OTM, experience of contractor organisation is a must. If all the participating organizations propose same price then the winner can be finalized through lottery. But this facility is absent in the open tender method. In this case, a contractor organisation’s past experience and annual bank transaction are considered for granting the tender. In OTM, comparatively small contractor organisations cannot survive in contest with the big organisation mainly due to experience ground, sources said.

In this regard, chief engineer of public works division Md Shahadar Hossain said, according to existing rule the contractors are to propose their prices within 10 percent of the estimated cost. As a result, proposed prices of the contractors become almost same. Therefore, tender is awarded depending on their prior experience and bank transaction, and in most of the case the comparatively small organisation get out of the competition, he added.

The planning ministry, in-charge of taking care of e-GP, is working to make necessary changes in the system to make it flawless. Director General of Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) of the Planning Ministry Md Kamruzzaman said they are working to remove the weaknesses of the exiting tender system. Recently a meeting was held with the experts in this field and a number of proposals were made there.