Bangladesh Public Procurement Authority Bill 2023 was placed in Parliament on Wednesday to turn Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU) into a directorate, aiming to ensure transparency, skill and accountability in public procurement.
Planning Minister MA Mannan placed the Bill and it was sent to the respective scrutiny committee for further examination. The Committee was asked to submit their report within 60 days.
Once the law is enacted, a public procurement authority will be formed with its head office in Dhaka. The three-year term 17-member board of directors would run the authority led by the planning minister as chairman. The board will have to hold at least four meetings per year.
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The CPTU works as a unit under the Ministry of Planning. Providing proper technical support has become difficult for the unit due to a growth in government purchases.
According to the draft law, the proposed Public Procurement Authority would regulate government purchase processes, ensure that all government procurement laws are followed, and be responsible for inspections, adjustment, management and supervision.
In the objective of the Bill, the Planning Minister MA Mannan said that in order to bring transparency and accountability in the government procurement process the government procurement system reform program was officially started in Bangladesh from 1999.
As part of such reforms, the Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU) was formed in 2002 as a unit under the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Department (IMED) of the Ministry of Planning.
The Prime Minister inaugurated the Electronic Government Procurement (e-GP) web portal on 02 June 2011 for the purpose of building a digital platform for government procurement activities and through this the government procurement system entered the digital era.
He said that the CPTU is playing an important role in increasing efficiency and creating professionalism in government procurement management. At present more than 11,318 purchasers of 1437 offices are conducting procurement activities online using 'e-GP' system.
The role of e-GP in government procurement process is expanding. In this context, the lack of required manpower, the need to hire specialized manpower as soon as possible, increase the institutional capacity to ensure law enforcement, the need to create a new institutional structure to meet the challenges of decision-making in special situations related to the government procurement process is particularly felt.
The Minister said that government's development budget is increasing every year. Accordingly, the amount of government purchases is also increasing day by day. The government procurement expenditure in 2001-2002 was Tk 19,000 crore, which is around Tk 2,21,500 crore in FY 2022-2023.
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He said that the CPTU's existing organisational structure to ensure the implementation of public procurement seems to be tough by ensuring the conditions related to climate change, natural and social protection, environmental and environmental protection, while ensuring sustainable public procurement, which is increasingly important globally and related to SDG targets.
He mentioned that the aim of the Bangladesh Public Procurement Authority (BPPA) Bill is to provide legal and technical supervision of this increased caliber of public procurement, ensuring and facilitating sustainable public procurement related to the SDG targets, ensuring the best use of public funds through proper implementation of public procurement laws.
The Minister hoped that this transformation of the existing CPTU into Bangladesh Public Procurement Authority (BPPA) with the aim of bringing more dynamism and ensuring efficiency in the procurement process can be expected to act as one of the regulators in building a knowledge-based, technology-based Smart Bangladesh by the year 2041.