DHAKA, Aug 26, 2020 (BSS) – The Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU) of Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division launched a Citizen Portal (citizen.cptu.gov.bd) today that will allow citizens to have access to public procurement data.
The interactive web portal aims to enhance transparency and accountability in the process of public procurement by providing relevant information in line with the Right to Information Act, said a press release.
“This is part of the government’s commitment to let people know about public expenditures because people have the right to know how their money is spent on procurement.” said Abul Mansur Md Faizullah, the outgoing Secretary of IMED, while launching the portal from his office online.
About 80 percent of Annual Development Programme and 45 percent of the total national budget are spent on public procurement.
The CPTU has developed the citizen portal under the Digitizing Implementation Monitoring and Public Procurement Project (DIMAPPP) supported by the World Bank.
Director General of CPTU Md. Shoheler Rahman Chowdhury chaired the virtual programme while the Secretary launched the portal online. Dnet has developed the portal for CPTU.
The DG CPTU said, “We started the journey today and its upgradation will be a continuous process. We are the agents of citizens and it is our responsibility to provide them timely information on public procurement.”
The Task Team Leader of DIMAPPP and Senior Procurement Specialist of the World Bank Ishtiak Siddique said that this is a big step towards improving transparency and efficiency in public procurement and contract implementation.
The portal also has extensive provision to analyze procurement data and take policy decisions to improve procurement and implementation performance, he said.
He also said utilization of data analytics can help reducing 5 to 10 per cent cost in procurement.
From the portal, citizens can get information about country-wide procurement of Goods, Works and Services. The portal also allows customization or search function through features as sorting or filtering as well as graphically presented data.
They can remain updated on different steps of procurement in their localities as well. In addition, citizens can also interact through citizen blogs and CPTU social media that are connected with this portal.
Through the platform, citizens can raise their voice and put their observations on public procurement.
Policy makers, officials of procuring entities, experts, researchers and others will be able to download procurement data following the Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) to conduct analysis and research work to understand procurement performance.
The Citizen Portal on public procurement is linked to CPTU website. The portal will be updated with information mainly from e-GP system. Apart from that, the CPTU publishes information from different sources such as government agencies, citizen engagement platforms on public procurement etc.