A five-member IMF team led by its Mission Chief of Bangladesh Mr. Daisaku Kihara visited CPTU on 25 June 2019. A meeting between the IMF team and the CPTU was held at CPTU Conference Room. Mr. Md. Ali Noor, Director General of CPTU, chaired the meeting.    

The DG CPTU welcomed the IMF team. He said the CPTU has been working to ensure value for money in public procurement. Mr. Ali Noor said such interactions with international partners may continue in future. The CPTU works in a wide range of areas including digitization of public procurement. “Our e-GP has earned appreciation at home and abroad,” he observed.

The objective of their visit was to know about functionalities of the e-GP system being implemented by CPTU. Mr. Md. Mosharraf Hussain, Senior System Analyst, made a brief presentation on e-GP. He touched upon legal frame-work and background of e-GP, its growth and benefits.

Mr. Mosharraf said that at present competition rate in e-GP is now 14 per tender. He mentioned that on an average an amount of 18 billion US dollars is spent on public procurement every year. In the fiscal year 2018-19, the total value of procurement through e-GP was 16 billion US dollars. On that basis, he said the share of e-GP in total value of public procurement is 80 per cent.

Mr. Shish Haider Chowdhury, Director (Training and Coordination) conducted the meeting.

Other members of the IMF team included Mr. Ragnar Gudmundsson, Resident Representative, Dhaka, Ms. Jiri Jonas, Senior Economist, Mr. Rach Moussa, Economist and Mr. Muhammad Imam Hussain, Economist. They wanted to know various aspects of e-GP.

From CPTU side Mr. Masud Akhter Khan, Director (Opinion), Mr. Asad Ibne Moin, Senior IT Security Assurance Consultant and Md. Shafiul Alam, Senior Communications Consultant, also spoke in the meeting.

The IMF team members raised issues regarding e-GP functions, competition, share of e-GP in public procurement in Bangladesh, international tender and service procurement through e-GP, performance measurement, time reduction through e-GP, performance of procuring agencies etc. The Senior System Analyst replied to such queries. They appreciated the government for speedy growth of e-GP system.