DHAKA, Nov 28, 2023 (BSS) - As information on public procurement have been made available to citizens through the citizen portal, speakers at a seminar today said such citizen portal can play a vital role in enhancing transparency in public procurement.

They said citizens can know different aspects relating to procurement from this portal while citizens, policymakers, procuring entities, tenderers and experts can also play a role in public procurement monitoring with this information.

Through this, it is possible to increase transparency and accountability in public procurement.

 The speakers made these observations at a seminar organized by the Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU) of the Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED), Ministry of Planning, in the capital today.

The seminar titled 'Citizen Portal to Engage citizens in Public Procurement' was held at a city hotel with facilitation of Dnet, a consulting firm engaged by CPTU.

The event was organized under the Digitizing Implementation Monitoring and Public Procurement Project (DIMAPPP) of CPTU supported by the World Bank.

 The seminar was chaired by Director General of CPTU Mohammed Shoheler Rahman Chowdhury. Secretary, IMED Abul Kashem Md. Mohiuddin was the chief guest. The lead procurement specialist of the World Bank Nagaraju Duthaluri was present as a special guest.

Mirza Ashfaqur Rahman, Director (Additional Secretary) of CPTU gave welcome speech. Andalib Bin Haque, Data analytics expert of Dnet, gave a presentation on citizen engagement in public procurement and Citizen Portal at the event, said a press release.

Mohammad Atiqur Rahman, Managing Director (Joint Secretary) of Bangladesh Services Limited gave a presentation on the implementation of Sustainable Public Procurement Policy (SPP).

Representatives of various ministries and divisions, procuring agencies, development partners, business chambers, media and civil society participated in the open discussion.

Speakers in the seminar said that the allocation in the development budget is increasing every year to achieve the development goals and targets of the government. Along with that, the amount of expenditure on public procurement is increasing.

Currently, about one-third of the national budget and 80 percent of the Annual Development Program (ADP) is spent on public procurement. It is important to ensure transparency and accountability in this huge expenditure.

Citizen engagement can play an important role in this arena. Because, public procurement is being done by the money of the citizens and for them as well. In the event, it was informed that CPTU is taking various initiatives to ensure transparency, accountability, efficiency, competition to achieve value for money in public procurement.

 Citizen engagement is also a part of these initiatives. The CPTU has launched Citizen Portal called 'Sarkari Kroi Batayan (citizen.cptu.gov.bd)' to inform citizens about public procurement.

Through this, access to information related to public procurement has opened for all. This has created an opportunity to increase citizen monitoring of public procurement. Citizens can easily get various information related to the procurement of goods, works and services across the country from the portal.

There are also recent status of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of public procurement. The information on the portal is directly coming from the live data of the national electronic Government Procurement (e-GP) system.

 Speaking on the occasion, Abul Kashem Md. Mohiuddin, Secretary of IMED, said that currently there are about 1400 projects under the ADP across the country. About 80 to 85 percent of these project allocations are spent on procurement.

If transparency and accountability can be increased in public procurement, there will be no more corruption and irregularities in public spending. This is why, the role of citizens is important.

The citizen portal on public procurement has been launched to provide information to the citizens. Initiatives will be taken to inform people about this portal at the district-upazila level soon.

 The Lead Procurement Specialist of the World Bank Nagaraju Duthaluri said there are risks of corruption and irregularities in procurement. Hence, transparency and accountability will surely increase by the Citizen Portal introduced by CPTU as citizens can get information about public procurement form the portal.

In future, if detailed information about contract management is available on this portal, people will be more interested in it. This is a very bold initiative.

 CPTU Director General Md. Shoheler Rahman Chowdhury said that every citizen has the right to know what is being purchased with their tax- money. As part of establishing this right, CPTU has launched the Citizen Portal on public procurement. Gradually, all public procurement information will be made available in this portal, except for some confidential and sensitive information.

There is also an initiative to take citizens' feedback and opinions on public procurement through the portal. As a result, the public procurement system of the country will be more transparent and accountable in near future.

 CPTU Director (Additional Secretary) Mirza Ashfaqur Rahman in his welcome speech said, 'Sorakari Kroi Batayan' is now a major source of public procurement information. Citizens, policymakers, officials of procuring agencies, development partners, researchers, media, students and others will find this portal useful.