State Minister for Planning Zonayed Saki on Tuesday stressed the need to strengthen the institutional capacity of the Bangladesh Public Procurement Authority (BPPA) in view of its expanding regulatory and oversight responsibilities in public procurement.
He said the stakeholder consultation was aimed at assessing the BPPA's capacity requirements and exploring ways to ensure greater fairness and competition by creating opportunities for new entrants to the public procurement system.
"To achieve this, we need to amend both the Public Procurement Act and the Public Procurement Rules," he said.
The state minister made the remarks while addressing a stakeholder consultation workshop as the chief guest at the BPPA conference room of the Planning Commission.
He said such consultations are essential to identifying the institutional and regulatory reforms needed to build a stronger and more effective procurement authority.
The workshop, organised by the BPPA, focused on enhancing the electronic government procurement (e-GP) system, strengthening e-GP monitoring, and expanding the authority's institutional capacity.
BPPA Chief Executive Officer (Secretary) S. M. Moin Uddin Ahmed chaired the event, while Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) Secretary Shirajun Noor Chowdhury attended as the special guest. Dohatec New Media managed the workshop.
Saki observed that public procurement has gradually become concentrated among a limited number of participants over the years and stressed the need to remove barriers to create a more competitive and inclusive procurement environment.
More than 30 representatives from procuring entities, business associations, government agencies, the private sector, academia, and the media participated in the consultation.
BPPA Chief Executive Officer S. M. Moin Uddin Ahmed said the government plans to revise the Public Procurement Act and the Public Procurement Rules by incorporating recommendations received through the consultation process.
Participants also reviewed the proposed 110-member BPPA organogram and said the proposed staffing strength would be inadequate to discharge the authority's growing responsibilities, including regulatory oversight, compliance monitoring, training, research, policy development, and nationwide capacity-building activities.
They also emphasised the need for greater interoperability between the e-GP platform and other automated public-sector systems to improve efficiency, transparency, and service delivery.
Speaking at the workshop, IMED Secretary Shirajun Noor Chowdhury said delays in project implementation are mainly caused by two factors: land acquisition and procurement.
He said the government is giving the highest priority to the timely implementation of development projects and that strengthening the BPPA's institutional capacity and modernising the e-GP system with advanced technologies have therefore become imperative.
kabirhumayan10@gmail.com