“The policy will help reduce the overall procurement time and transaction costs, improve quality of procurement, promote advanced and cleaner technologies, encourage deeper focus on project design and planning, and infuse more flexibility and dynamism in the bidding process allowing multiple stage bidding for complex procurement,” said Parkash.
The ADB explained its new procurement policy at a ceremony at Bangabandhu International Conference Center in the city.
Economic Affairs Advisor to Prime Minister Dr Mashiur Rahman opened the event.
“The policy also promotes the greater use of country systems and introduced simpler process for cofinanced projects,” Parkash added.
Additional Secretary, ADB Wing, Economic Relations Division, Ministry of Finance Muhammad Alkama Siddiqui and Director General, Central Procurement Technical Unit, Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division Md. Faruque Hossain spoke at the ceremony.
Effective implementation of the new procurement policy in ADB-funded projects was discussed at the event.
About 170 senior government officials, project directors, and ADB staff participated.
The new policy, for which guidance notes were issued in 2018, emphasizes two new principles----‘quality’ and ‘value for money’ along with the existing principles of economy, efficiency, fairness, and transparency, ADB said.
Currently, ADB has 96 loans and grants for 56 projects with over $10.1 billion under sovereign portfolio in Bangladesh.
During January-September 2018, ADB approved loans and grants equivalent to $2.15 billion, and contract awards crossed $1.1 billion and disbursement $700 million.
ADB’s portfolio performance in Bangladesh is expected to hit the highest record in 2018 while it has grown by 300 percent since 2008.
ADB focuses its cooperation in Bangladesh in six sectors—energy; transport; water and urban/municipal infrastructure and services; education; finance; and agriculture, natural resources, and rural development.
ADB’s cumulative lending to Bangladesh stands at around $22 billion for 284 loans, $263 million for 435 technical assistance projects, and $922 million for 41 grants.