Staff correspondent :

Bangladesh Public Procurement Authority Bill, 2023 was passed today in the Jatiya Sangsad aiming to bring more dynamism to public procurement by transforming the central procurement technical unit (CPTU) into a full-fledged authority.

Planning Minister M A Mannan moved the bill which was unanimously passed by voice votes in the house with Deputy Speaker Shamsul Huq Tuku in the chair.

Placing the bill, the minister said although the CPTU is playing a significant role in creating professionalism and increasing expertise in arrangements of public purchase and that’s why over 11,318 purchasers from 1,437 offices now operating purchase programme by using e-GP.

The volume of e-GP is gradually increasing and that’s why the foundation of a new institutional body is required to face the challenges of taking decisions in case of public purchase under the changing situation.

The amount of the development budget of the government is rising day by day and at the same time the amount of public purchase is also increasing, said the minister. In 2001-2002, the net expenditure for public purchases was Taka 19,000 crore, while it was increased to an estimated of Taka 2,21,500 crore in 2022-2023.

So, CPTU, formed under the implementation of Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) under the Planning Ministry in 2002, has no adequate workforce and infrastructure to oversee the legal and technical aspects of the public procurement process to a broad extent.

On the other hand, public procurement has access to digital processes after inaugurating the Electronic Government Procurement (e-GP) web portal by the Prime Minister on June 2, 2011.

Welcoming the bill, opposition lawmaker Fakhrul Imam of Mymensingh-8 said the enactment of the law will help to bring dynamism to the entire public purchase programme.

Earlier on July 5, 2023, the bill was sent to the concerned parliamentary standing committee for further scrutiny.

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