AC Allows Ministry to Renew 11 Contracts of Grameenphone for School Internet Connectivity

The Advisory Committee on Government Procurement has allowed the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education to approve the renewal of 11 contracts with Grameenphone Limited for providing internet connectivity to government primary schools across the country.

The contracts cover internet services for 40,586 government primary schools under the Fourth Primary Education Development Programme (PEDP-4).

The decision was taken at a meeting of the Advisory Committee on Government Procurement held at the Secretariat on Tuesday, February 10. The meeting was chaired by Finance Adviser and Adviser to the Ministry of Science and Technology, Dr Salehuddin Ahmed.

At the meeting, the committee decided to delegate the authority to renew or revalidate the 11 existing contracts with Grameenphone to the concerned ministry under its own jurisdiction, instead of requiring further approval at the committee level.

In the same meeting, the committee also approved procurement proposals submitted by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare involving medical equipment and medicines worth a total of Tk 314.68 crore.

Under one proposal from the Health Services Division, approval was given for the procurement and uninterrupted supply of GeneXpert cartridges through the Direct Procurement Method (DPM). A total of 1.482 million GeneXpert cartridges will be procured at a cost of Tk 237.12 crore, with the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) selected as the recommended supplier.

The committee also approved another proposal for procuring Anti-TB Drug (4FDC) used in tuberculosis treatment. Under this plan, 53.865 million units of Anti-TB Drug (4FDC) will be purchased from Renata PLC at a cost of Tk 77.5656 crore.

Senior officials, including members of the advisory committee, secretaries of the concerned ministries and divisions, and other high-ranking government officials, were present at the meeting.

DBTech/BN/EK