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Daily Sun23-08-2011
BSS
The e-tendering introduced to expedite public procurement has registered a total of 182 bidders so far with the electronic government procurement system (e-GP).
More bidders and consultants are in the pipeline to get enlisted, and the process of registration will continue as the e-GP system has the capacity to register 300,000 bidders of various ministries; departments, divisions and agencies, said CPTU Director General Amulya Kumar Debnath. The capacity can also be extended as per the necessity, the CPTU DG added.
The e-tender is aimed to save time and costs, bring transparency and eradicate corruption in the process of procuring goods, works and services by the government agencies. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina launched the e-GP portal on June 2 last to the start e-tender.
The Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU) under the Ministry of Planning has developed the high capacity electronic government procurement portal.
Since its official launch, the portal has been open for registration. Until August 21, about 182 tenderers and consultants, and 27 procuring entities of the four target agencies including CPTU registered with the e-GP system while more applications await approval.
As the registration is increasing and encouraging, the CPTU is setting up an e-GP training lab for providing orientation to the bidders.
Meanwhile, Bhutan has expressed its keen interest in introducing e-GP when a four-member delegation of the Kingdom visited the Central e-GP Data Centre established at CPTU on August 3.
The Bhutanese team during its meeting with CPTU officials said that Bhutan was thinking of introducing e-GP.
On the other hand, the CPTU has been invited to present its e-GP model in Delhi, and at the regional conference in Bali of Indonesia in November, said CPTU director general.
In South Asia, Bangladesh will be leading in introducing a centralized system of electronic procurement with good back-up facilities. Some states of India have introduced e-GP while South Korea took seven years to implement the e-GP.
Bangladesh is the first country in the region that is completing e-tendering cycle, informed Amulya Kumar.
Talking to BSS, Communications and Social Awareness Consultant of PPRP-II Shafiul Alam said with the support from the World Bank under Public Procurement Reform Project-2, the e-tender is going to be piloted first in four procuring entities of four target agencies. The agencies are—Local Government and Engineering Department (LGED), Roads and Highways Department (RHD), Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) and Rural Electrification Board. |
