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e-GP makes tendering hassles-free


Published : 30 Jan 2023 08:01 PM

Bangladesh has made significant progress in public procuring procedures through its full digitization with implementation of Electronic Government Procurement (e-GP) by tremendously reducing hassles and eliminated social conflicts that used to cause due to physical submission of tenders.

Not only that, e-GP has saved time for all parties including procuring entities and the tenderers and reduced use of papers as well as established accountability and transparency in the tendering and overall procuring process through inclusion of various features till the recent days.

Md. Aknur Rahman, Ph.D., Director (Joint Secretary), CPTU, IMED, Ministry of Planning said this while speaking as the chief guest at a Government-Tenderers’ Forum (GTF) Workshop in Sirajganj on Sunday, January 29, 2023.

Mir Mohammad Mahbubur Rahman, Deputy Commissioner & District Magistrate, Sirajganj chaired the workshop.In order toensuring transparency and accountability in public procuring procedures, the concerned government officials especially the procuring entities need to be careful in setting up procuring criteria as this is very much essential for making overall development sustainable, he said.

The Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU) under the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) of the Planning Ministry organised the workshop where GTF members gave their opinion on how to make the forum reactivated.

Mentioning that e-GP was implemented for creating a level playing field for all tenderers especially to allow new tenderers to participate in tendering process through digitising the overall procurement ecosystem, they pointed out some challenges small tenderers have been facing at present.

Stressing the need for proper utilisation of various methods incorporated by CPTU within the eGP system for ensuring complete digitisation, Md. Aknur Rahmansaid this will ensure appropriate use of public money and accelerate the country’s sustainable development.

Responding to various queries from tenderers and others, he assured that the CPTU is working to overcome the challenges through incorporating the recommendations of all stakeholders to make e-GP more effective.

He said, through this workshop, the existing GTF committee will be updated and activated further and will help strengthen the cooperation between procuring entities and tenderers and speed up the development activities.

Under CPTU’s Digitizing Implementation Monitoring and Public Procurement Project (DIMAPP) funded by the World Bank, the workshop was organised with the support of Bangladesh Center for Communication Programs (BCCP).

Meher Afroze, Deputy Director, BCCP delivered welcome speech and made a presentation on GTF at the workshop.The workshop was moderated by Md Abdus Salam, program manager of BCCP.

Over 75participants including representatives of Procuring Entities (PEs) and tenderers, civil society members and journalists attended the workshop.