The introduction of e-tender at Bangladesh Bank enables bidders to take part in the bidding freely in a process that eliminated domination of muscle power and shortened the procurement cycle.

Since its introduction in May 2010, the banking regulator gave 350 contracts out of 400 to winning bidders for procurement of goods through e-tender, a central bank official said.

"With this online system, the entire tender process for procurement of goods and services starting from creation of a purchase requisition through to the award of contract is being done in a transparent and fair manner," said Nazneen Sultana, deputy governor of Bangladesh Bank.

She said e-tender minimises the use of paper, hassles in communication and administration and labour-intensive tasks of receipt, recording and distribution.

In fact, the e-tender tool transforms a rigid, process-driven environment into a flexible, result-driven landscape, Sultana said.

Some 100 tenders are waiting for evaluation and contracts are expected to be awarded soon, said Mohammed Ishaque Miah, senior systems analyst.

The BB developed the electronic tender system software with own expertise and resources for tender call, collection and evaluation to quicken its procurement process.

Now, the software became a model in the country's bidding process that often triggered unbridled corruption and snatching of tender box in the manual system, he added.

Ishaque said the Bridge Division, Rupali Bank, Security Printing Press and some other organisations will introduce e-bidding with the software.

The user-friendly software has been developed considering the country's socio-economic and literacy condition, said Kazi Nasir Ahmed, another IT expert of BB.

Users will have to sign up for the e-tender system with valid email addresses. A user can log into the system with an ID and password. Unregistered users who want to participate in the bidding have to click the link 'Register Now' of the tender site.

The Daily Star/Bangladesh/ 10th April 2012