Big headway in tender digitization
Considering that transparency in public procurement is a prime prerequisite for sustainable development, Bangladesh has witnessed a big headway in its digitization by incorporating a number of electronic methods in the electronic government procurement system.
Electronic contract management System (e-CMS) is one of a number of prominent new modules that has created a positive impact on procurement practices.
CPTU adds new features to e-GP # Public procurement now fully digitized
The Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU), the nodal agency that introduced electronic government procurement (e-GP) system in the country, has made a paradigm shift by adding new features to the e-GP to make entire procurement process digitized.
In line with a disclosure by Director General of CPTU Mohammed Shoheler Rahman Chowdhury before the press at CPTU recently, it is gathered that CPTU of Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) under the Ministry of Planning, has implemented e-CMS and some other very important features towards full digitization of public procurement process and contract management.
Elaborating on some major and unique initiatives incorporated in the system in the recent times, besides e-CMS, he mentioned Tenderers’ Database, A-Challan for electronic payment, Direct Procurement Method (DPM), International Competitive Bidding (ICB), Electronic Audit and NID integration which are expected to make public procurement smarter and convenient for all concerned.
Talking about e-CMS, he said, through e-GP system, it is possible to conduct procurement up to contract signing and its management by the procuring entities (PEs). The PEs can now manage contracts through automatic contract management system to allow conduct of work flow, validation order and other complex issues at the management stage by using documents uploaded in the system.
The entire public procurement cycle, starting from planning to contract management is now integrated with the system of the Finance Division soon. With this, when a tenderer generates a bill, it will enter e-GP system from the PEs and connect with the iBAS++ system. Then the concerned official of the PE will scrutinize it and send fund to the accounts of the tenderer through iBAS++.
The DG also mentioned development of tenderers’ database, a major milestone achievement that will simplify the tasks of both the PEs and the tenderers as all. The required data will be stored in the database. “We are receiving response from the tenderers. The information, following endorsement by PEs, will be accepted in the system. For submitting tender for any procurement tenderers just need do mapping of required documents in the system and complete the process without any hassles,” he added.
Automated challan (A-Challan) is another milestone initiative of CPTU. At present, for collecting documents, tenderers need to go to bank and deposit fees. With payment slip, they later go to the office of the PEs and wait there for approval that enables them to enter the system and download the document. But now, they can download tender documents in five minutes by paying document fees, registration fee, renewal fee etc through A Challan by using any debit/credit cards, bKash, Rocket or Nagad, he said.
The CPTU has also introduced Direct Procurement Method (DPM) in the system with two types of arrangements so that the PEs which need to conduct procurement by using government funds, and also for those who want to do it by using funds of the development partners. He said requesting representatives of the ADB to advise procuring entities to do DPM from the system as CPTU is ready to provide any sort of cooperation.
International Competitive Bidding (ICB), a landmark initiative in the country’s procuring system has been introduced recently, the DG said mentioning: “CPTU is a pioneer in this area as it is the first to invite a tender through ICB with approval of IMED.” He requested others to use ICB model as it is compatible for both local and international tenderers for its two options. Any PE that uses ICB through GoB funds will find one type of tender document while those using funds of the development partners will find separate tender document, he said.
Another big task completed so far is e-Audit (electronic audit), announced DG adding, this has significantly cut down hassles in auditing where officials need not go to the audit office and submit or download huge volume of papers. From the system, all documents can be evaluated and audit report can be prepared. Contract management part will be incorporated with the e-Audit system within three months. With completion of e-Audit, no PEs will need to go to audit office for audit purpose. Auditors can generate audit reports based on the documents stored in the system, DG declared.
NID integration is a major initiative by CPTU to make e-GP secure, the DG CPTU said adding, “For making procurement system secure, we need to confirm identity of tenderers which will now be automatically authenticated from the system of the election commission. This will also reduce the lead-time of procurement completion as well as make lives of all engaged in the process comfortable.” “We are at the finale stage of NID integration. We had several meetings with the Election Commission (EC), signed MoU and deposited required fees for that,” he added.
“We are upgrading the e-GP system from monolithic to multi-serviced one to make the system much faster as Bangladesh for the first time is going to start a new journey towards sustainable public procurement aligned with SDG 12: Responsible consumption and production and more specifically for achieving SDG - 12.7 target and indicator on Sustainable Public Procurement implementation,” the DG CPTU emphasized.
