The government will sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the commercial banks for introducing electronic government procurement (e-GP) mechanism as the system requires electronic payment facilities.

Initially, the MoU will be signed with 12 banks by the end of this month and by turn all other banks will be tied up with the system in a bid to ensure accountability and transparency in the government procurement.

It was decided at a meeting between the Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU) and the commercial banks along with the central bank at the conference room of the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) in the city yesterday.

IMED secretary Habib Ullah Majumder presided over the meeting organised by the CPTU.

CPTU Director General Amulya Kumar Debnath, Bangladesh Bank Executive Director Nazneen Sultana, CPTU Director Aziz Taher Khan, representatives from 12 banks and other officials were present at the meeting.

The CPTU made a presentation at the meeting on e-payment options for introducing the e-GP system. The representatives of the banks discussed about their existing system, capacity and involvement in the process of introducing the e-payment system.

The officials said that all the banks do not have the same capacity and system for such operation. So, it has to be sorted out between the banks and CPTU.

Bangladesh Bank representative suggested that the banks individually would fix a reasonable service charge for tenders following their bank guidelines.

The meeting decided that the banks would expedite their preparation for this and CPTU would hold further discussions with them to finalise the MoU and technical, and management issues as soon as possible.

The CPTU is implementing the Public Procurement Reform Project-II (PPRP-II) supported by the World Bank. Introducing e-GP on pilot basis in four target agencies such as LGED, REB, WDB and RHD is one of the four components of the PPRP-II, sources said.

After success of the pilot project, the system will be introduced at all ministries and divisions by June this year to ensure efficient, effective and transparent public bidding procedures.

News: Daily Sun /Bangladesh/19 Jan 2011