Bangladesh’s graduation into a developed nation by the year 2041 largely depends on appropriate implementation of the mammoth development programmes undertaken by the government which can be achieved with sincere and coordinated efforts of all concerned.
Abul Mansur Md. Faizullah, Secretary, Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) under the Planning Ministry, made this observation while speaking at a workshop as the chief guest at Khulna Circuit House on Sunday.
Though the national budget is increasing gradually to mobilise huge development funds, the capacity of the government officials and the project implementing agencies is not up to the mark for which the rate and the quality of ADP schemes is not fully satisfactory, he added.
The workshop was organised to gather ideas and recommendations from all stakeholders on institutionalising Government-Tenderers’ Forum (GTF) – a platform of procuring entities and tenderers to exchange views, ideas and experiences on procurement including e-GP.
At the workshop, speakers emphasised that GTF would help establish sustainable public procurement system in the country and for making the forums sustainable and more effective a central body like Bangladesh Government-Tenderers’ Forum (BGTF) needs to be established.
Md. Ali Noor, Director General (Additional Secretary), the Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU) under the IMED, Ministry of Planning, Nishchint Kumar Poddar, Additional Divisional Commissioner, Khulna, and Shish Haider Chowdhury, Director (Training and Coordination), CPTU, IMED spoke as special guests, while Ishrat Jahan, Deputy Director, Local Government, Khulna, presided over it.
Faizullah said the lack of proper skills in preparation of project documents, lax in monitoring and absence of sincerity and honesty of the concerned officials and tenderers are mainly responsible for slow progress in ADP implementation.
The IMED secretary said in order to achieve the target of reaching a developed nation, the government has given top priority to effective utilization of public money through proper and timely implementation of various projects under its annual development program (ADP).
Md. Ali Noor said the CPTU is providing all sorts of supports to the tenderers in resolving any disputes that arises while in the tender project to project implementation stages and for making its efforts smoother it is now working to establish government-tenderers forum for better coordination.
“GTFs have been formed in every district and the CPTU is frequently holding meetings with them. From the recommendations that came from all stakeholders, both in the government agencies and tenders, we are now working to establish BGTF at the central level,” he said.
The workshop was arranged by CPTU under Digitizing Implementation Monitoring and Public Procurement Project (DIMAPPP) of the World Bank and facilitated by Bangladesh Center for Communication Program (BCCP).
