bdmetronews Desk ॥ The first of five sessions on orientation about public procurement for officers of the Parliament Secretariat was held in the Oath Room of Parliament Building on September 20, 2016.
About 30 officers of various sections of the Parliament Secretariat took part in the one-day orientation.
Dr. Md. Abdur Rob Howlader, Senior Secretary, Parliament Secretariat, presided over the inaugural session while Farid Uddin Ahmed Chowdhury, Secretary, IME Division, was present as Special Guest. Dr. Zafrul Islam, Lead Procurement Specialist, World Bank, was also present on the occasion. Md. Faruque Hossain, Director General of CPTU, IMED, Ministry of Planning, conducted the orientation session.
The Senior Secretary in his inaugural speech mentioned that procurement is in the heart of development and revenue budget of the country. Its relevance to Parliament is more important as officers provide support to various parliamentary standing committees which need to deal with large procurement of the government. Moreover, Parliament Secretariat itself has public procurement needs. He said this is a welcome step that the government has introduced e-GP.
The Secretary of IMED said, “The reforms in public procurement started in 2002 and then in 2008 we targeted four large agencies under the PPRP-II for implementation of the reforms. The project has produced good results.” Now the public procurement is transformed into digital technology which is called e-GP, he noted. “On the one hand we are implementing e-GP and on the other we are enhancing capacity of the main actors. At the same time we are engaging other stakeholders in dialogues and examining possibility of citizen engagement in public procurement,” he added.
Additional Secretary, Parliament Secretariat, Md. Nuruzzaman, in his welcome address said that in a total of five sessions about 150 officers will be oriented about the public procurement system and management. He expressed the hope that such orientation would help officers carry out relevant activities efficiently.
Dr Zafrul Islam said, “Bangladesh is the only country in the world that has carried out reforms in its public procurement by borrowing money from the World Bank.” Therefore, he added, it indicates the seriousness of the government to ensure transparency and accountability in this important sector of public expenditures.
William Liam Heavin, Team Leader of Fineurop, Consultant for the capacity development under the PPRP-II, said, “We have been coordinating and managing various training and orientation on public procurement under project being implemented by CPTU with support from the WB.
In the orientation on public procurement, the DG, CPTU touched upon public procurement system and principles, committees, methods, advertisement, documents, approval process, delegation of financial power (DoFP) etc. The participants actively attended the session and interacted with the DG, CPTU on various issues. The DG, CPTU explained and gave clarifications on those.
