The government's online-based electronic procurement system is yet to gain a foothold among the people related to procurement and tendering process, as it has been introduced without sufficient training for the relevant persons. On the other hand, both the public and private stakeholders are largely not aware of the development.
The e-Government Procurement (e-GP) system became operational in October last year with a pilot programme involving Local Government Engineering Department (LGED), Roads and Highways Department (RHD), Rural Electrification Board (REB) and Bangladesh Water Development Board, Planning Commission sources said.
In fifteen months, the government's 19 organisations have come under the e-GP net and it is expanding gradually, and the system is being fast introduced to the government's other departments and agencies.
A source in the Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU) said more than 100 thousand tenders are floated a year through the government's procurement system.
He since the beginning of the operation of the e-GP in 2012, only six thousands tender-floating entities had registered their firms with the portal dashboard. He said as it was not declared mandatory for the stakeholders, public departments were gradually coming under the net.
Engineer Sirajul Islam, Deputy Managing Director (DMD), Project Builders Limited (PBL), a construction firm that has been engaged in business with the government since 1977, said, "The e-GP is still vague to us."
He said, "We are not clear about the system and there are no training initiatives on the part of the government."
The PBL DMD said the e-GP implementation would be helpful to both the government and the private parties as online tendering and procuring system is safe, paperless and hassle-free.
Amulya Kumar Debnath, chief of the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) and also director general of the CPTU, said, "We are going ahead with the e-GP portal."
He said, "Though currently 19 organisations are under our e-GP system, we are creating pressure on other organisations and departments along with imparting necessary training to the stakeholders, and related departments."
The IMED chief said currently tendering was being carried out both manually and electronically, as the portal access is not available in the entire government system and it is even not mandatory.
He said already ten banks have registered with the system to facilitate their clients' business over online portal with the government, and another eight banks are in the pipeline.
The CPTU official said, "We have fixed the prices of the e-tender schedules and there are no scopes for extortion, mismanagement and manipulation in the system. As per the World Bank (WB) terms and conditions, we are training the procurement-related persons."
A senior banker said, "Some of our clients have expressed dismay over the fact that as we are not registered with the electronic procurement system, they cannot participate in many tenders as the organisations concerned have made e-tendering mandatory."
He added, "As per our clients' demand, we are preparing ourselves to be registered with the e-GP to enable our clients to purchase e-tender documents and participate in the biddings."
He said although there were demands from some of the clients, the entire system was yet to impress many of the stakeholders. There is no training on the system, he added.
The CPTU data says many offices and units of the BPDB, BPC, DESCO, WASA, LGED, PWD, Rajuk, RHD, REB and others have already registered their names within the e-GP.
The data also shows the LGED is the highest (580) in registering their different departments for procurement and tendering through e-GP across the country.
Apart from the registered organisations and departments of the government, a good number of other government wings and organisations are also in the process of being registered with the e-GP system.
The IMED's e-GP project, supported by the World Bank, is being implemented under the ministry of planning with a view to replacing the current complex tendering and procurement system with an easy and accessible one.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Shamsul Huda
Quelle/Source: The Financial Express Bangladesh, 26.10.2013
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