Formulation of strategy under way
The government has decided to engage citizens as third party monitoring agency at implementation stage of development projects for ensuring better use of public resources and preventing corruption in government expenditures
through promoting transparency and accountability.In this regard, the government is going to formulate a strategy for engaging citizens in monitoring the public procurement and implementation process of development projects, planning ministry officials said.
The citizen engagement in the process, also known as third party monitoring mechanism, will act as watchdogs to ensure quality and timely completion of development works, they said.
‘The Public-Private Stakeholders Committee formed by Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Division of the planning ministry last week primarily decided to engage citizens in the implementation process of development works as third party monitoring agencies,’ Amulya Kumar Debnath, director general of central procurement technical unit of IMED, told New Age on Saturday.
The PPSC, headed by the planning minister, was formed to develop the possible mechanism for third party monitoring in public procurement and projects implementation process.
The committee consisting of government officials, representatives from public universities, private think-tanks, and business bodies last week discussed on the draft of the proposed strategy for civic engagement in public procurement and decided to finalise it at the next meeting of the committee, he said.
Debnath, also member secretary of the committee, said that the main objectives of involving citizens in the monitoring process were to ensure quality and timely completion of works, prevent corruption in public expenditure and establish transparency and accountability.
The draft strategy suggested that citizen groups might be formed at upazila, district and central level on voluntary basis to act as watchdogs to monitor the public procurement outcomes.
‘Procurement above Tk 25 lakh at upazila level and Tk 1 crore and above at district level may be designed for third party monitoring,’ it suggested.
The government will have to amend Public Procurement Act-2006 and Public Procurement Rules-2008 to provide legal base of the mechanism.
The strategy drafted by the Institute of Government Studies of BRAC University suggested forming a specialised organisation as a central body to oversee third party monitoring and coordinate with procuring entities and monitoring agencies for better outcome and monitoring agencies will be able to report about any problems and irregularities in implementation.
Considering the technical complexities in needs assessment, project design, bidding process and contract awarding process, the committee initially decided to introduce third party monitoring mechanism at implementation stage, Debnath said adding that the CPTU found effectiveness of civic engagement in the process through two pilot projects.
The IGS on behalf of CPTU conducted the two pilot exercises of third party monitoring at the implementation process of two projects — reconstruction of a school building and RCC construction of a canal — of Local Government Engineering Department in Narayanganj and Chapainawabganj.
‘The pilot exercises prove that third party monitoring in implementation stage will be effective and the government can introduce the mechanism to ensure quality of development activities and better use of public money,’ said Mohammad Sirajul Islam, team leader of the study and also a research associate of IGS.
Citizens monitoring committee monitored the overall implementation process and tested quality of construction materials, he said adding that engineers and contractors became more cautious about the quality of works because of citizens’ engagement in the two projects.
-With New Age input
