ZCZC
BSS-58
GTF-INSTITUTIONALISATION
Institutionalisation of GTF stressed for sustainable public procurement
SYLHET, Mar 11, 2019 (BSS) – Speakers at a workshop on Government-
Tenderers’ Forum (GTF) here today emphasized on institutionalization of the
GTFs at every district in order to make public procurement effective.
GTFs, a platform of procuring entities and tenderers to exchange views,
ideas and experiences on procurement including e-GP, would help establish
sustainable public procurement system in the country, they said.
Md Ali Noor, director general of the Central Procurement Technical Unit
(CPTU) and Additional Secretary of the Implementation Monitoring and
Evaluation Division (IMED) of Planning Ministry, addressed the workshop as
the chief guest at the Deputy Commissioner (DC) office here with the DC M
Kazi Emdadul Islam in the chair.
Dr Zafrul Islam, Lead Procurement Specialist and Task Team Leader of the
World Bank’s Digitizing Implementation Monitoring and Public Procurement
Project (DIMAPPP), Shish Haider Chowdhury, Director (training and
coordination) of the IMED’s CPTU, Mohammad Shahjahan, Director and CEO of
Bangladesh Centre for Communication Programmes (BCCP) and Mrinal Kanti Deb,
Divisional Commissioner (in-charge) of Sylhet spoke as special guests.
Addressing the workshop, Dr Zafrul Islam said, “Bangladesh has proved that
procurement reform is possible here. Earlier, there was a gap between the
procuring agencies and tenderers. GTF is a unique model in the world where
tenderers can sit in a table with government procuring entities.”
Bangladesh is recognized globally for its success in e-GP implementation
and many countries are following Bangladesh model, he said, adding, “We would
work to make GTF globally prominent so that other countries follow it. For
this, GTF needs to be institutionalized”.
Shish Haider Chowdhury stressed on ensuring value for money by ensuring
efficiency in spending budget through making development effective.
A central forum of government-tenderers titled Bangladesh Government-
Tenderers’ Forum (BGTF) will be formed aiming to ensure full digitization by
2021, he said.
Representatives from various procuring entities and a good number of
tenderers participated in the workshop organised under DIMAPPP by CPTU and
facilitated by BCCP.
A power point presentation was made on GTFs and BGTF at the workshop
highlighting the importance of GTF and BGTF and the need for making the forum
sustainable through their institutionalization in order to ensuring effective
and transparent use of public fund in government procurement.
The workshop was organized aiming at gathering views and ideas on making
the GTF sustainable and creating an apex body of 64 GTFs constituted in 64
districts in Dhaka.
Besides, the convening committees of GTFs in different districts of Sylhet
division were reconstituted. An open discussion on PPR and e-GP was also held
at the workshop.
BSS/CORR/SAH/RY/20:10 hrs