e-GP is likely to play an effective role in building Smart Bangladesh
To achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, through transparency and accountability in government procurement in a digital manner, the government is working to save money and time as well as reduce environmental pollution, so that real value for money can be achieved.
Electronic Government Procurement or e-GP Portal was launched in 2011 with the aim of increasing its usage. Government is implementing e-GP as part of building Digital Bangladesh which will play an effective role in building Smart Bangladesh.
Director (Joint Secretary) Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU) under the Implementation Monitoring Evaluation Division (IMED) of the Ministry of Planning Md. Aknur Rahman conveyed the message while speaking as the chief guest at the Government and Tenderers Forum’s (GTF) day-long workshop held in Magura on Tuesday (June 13).
Magura Deputy Commissioner and District Magistrate Mr. Mohammad Abu Nasser Baig presided over the workshop held in the Conference Room of the district administration.
Bangladesh Center for Communication Programs (BCCP) organized the workshop under CPTU's Digitizing Implementation Monitoring and Public Procurement Project (DIMAPP) with support from World Bank.
Dr. Zeenat Sultana, Program Director, BCCP delivered the welcome address and made a presentation on GTF at the workshop. District GTF members were present on the occasion and shared various important views. Mohammad Abdus Salam, program officer of BCCP conducted the programme.
Highlighting the importance of GTF in the implementation of e-GP, Md. Aknur Rahman said that if any problems are encountered in procurement, the purchasers and contractors will speed up the development work by eliminating them through mutual discussions.
Depicting the progress of e-GP in a decade, he said that since 2011, the number of tenders called in e-GP has exceeded 6 lakh 89 thousand and more than 106,190 bidders have been registered in e-GP. 1,437 Government Procuring Organizations are registered with e-GP.
Mohammad Abu Nasser Baig, Deputy Commissioner and District Magistrate of Magura, said that GTF is an integrated platform of public procurement and bidders which is facilitating the main work of development projects by creating an environment of collaboration between two important stakeholders on various aspects of public procurement.
Mentioning the use of e-GP in one of the government's priority procurements, he said, as a result of e-GP, a lot of extra work has been reduced as this service has been digitized to make government procurement easily accessible to the people and delivered quickly.
