Audit officials need to have knowledge on the provisions of public procurement law and rules as proper audit is essential to check anomalies in the process of public procurement.

With the strong demands for more training on public procurement for audit officials and the introduction of pre-audit in public procurement, the above observations dominated a workshop titled “Public Procurement, e-GP and e-Audit” at the conference room of the Bangladesh Public Procurement Authority (BPPA) on 28 May 2025.

BPPA organized the workshop for officials of BCS Audit and Accounts Cadre as part of its efforts to improve overall public procurement management and environment under the Digitizing Implementation Monitoring and Public Procurement Project (DIMAPPP).

With the inclusion of electronic Contract Management System (e-CMS), the e-GP introduced by BPPA is now a complete online system. The system is now more robust as e-Audit module, Tenderers’ Database, international tender module, etc have been added to the e-GP System. The e-GP system has also been integrated with iBAS++ and NID.

Audit officials observed that e-Audit in e-GP has made their tasks easier as they can do audit of public procurement online through e-GP system and they do not need to travel to procuring entities and they do not need piles of papers for conducting their audits.

Mr. Mirza Ashfaqur Rahman, Chief Executive Officer of BPPA presided over the workshop. Mr. Nurul Islam, Director General of Foreign Aided Project Audit Directorate (FAPAD), was present as the Chief Guest while Mr. Mohammed Shoheler Rahman Chowdhury, former CEO of BPPA, was the Special Guest.

Mr. Nazmul Islam Bhuiyan, Team Leader, Enhancement of Operation and Maintenance of e-GP system, Dohatec New Media, made a detailed and comprehensive presentation on the aspects of e-Audit and its implementation progress.

The BPPA CEO also made another presentation highlighting the legal aspects of public procurement and where audit is essential and where audit personnel get misunderstood while carrying out audit on public procurement.

About 30 officials of BCS Audit and Accounts Cadre, who are working in various ministries and agencies attended the workshop. BPPA officials were also present. Bangladesh Center for Communication Programs (BCCP) managed the workshop as communication consultant of BPPA.

Mentioning that auditors are playing a significant role in protecting public funds, BPPA CEO said, BPPA has been working for ensuring transparency and accountability in public procurement where audit officials can help a lot in achieving its target.

Detailing the tasks BPPA (former CPTU) has taken up to take public procurement forward, he said, BPPA is making efforts to maximize the use of e-GP and its target is to conduct 90 per cent of public procurement through e-GP in next five years.

Urging BPA for arranging more trainings on public procurement to check misappropriation of public funds and benefit the country, Mr. Nurul Islam, DG of FAPAD said, without educated and trained auditors, BPPA cannot make procurement transparent and accountable.

Emphasizing the need for arranging training for audit officials, former CEO of the BPPA urged the office of the CAG to provide BPPA a long list of audit officials and said training would help audit officials better understand public procurement, e-GP and e-Audit.