Public Procurement
Process to engage citizens in monitoring lingers
The Public Procurement Stakeholders Committee could not come into a conclusion on engaging citizens in the monitoring of the public procurement in its eighth meeting on Wednesday, although the issue has been in discussion for the last two years.
The stakeholders including government officials, business leaders and professionals could not even agree with each other whether the process of citizen engagement will start from the upazila level, or be kept centralised, or be limited only to citizens with specialised knowledge.
The meeting also could not agreement on the leadership of the committee, which will include citizens or third party, for monitoring the public procurement.
The planning minister AK Khandker, who is the head of the committee, chaired the meeting.
Additional secretary of Economic Relations Division Arastu Khan said most technical aspects of the procurement could not be properly perceived by the common citizens at the grassroots level, reports United News of Bangladesh.
There is no need to widen the opportunity for citizen engagement to the bottom level right from the beginning of the initiative, he said.
‘Primarily, this should involve professional groups and be limited at the central level,’ Arastu Khan said.
Arastu also noted that the government has already involved ‘third party members’ in the monitoring of the implementation of projects and it yielded good results.
The participation of the citizens in the monitoring of the implementation can show good results, but it can create some difficulties at the earlier stages of the work, he added.
Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industries adviser Manzur Ahmed, however, differed with Arastu about the entry point for involving the citizens.
He noted that state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have been proving to be non-competitive due to set backs in the procurement, including the need assessment. ‘The needs assessment should be the point of intervention [by citizens],’ Manzur recommended.
‘There’re some points in the procurement where it involves the technical knowledge of professionals and officials. At such instances, the citizens other than the professionals can be involved in authentication of the plan,’ he said.
He also noted that there should be a mechanism in the process to shield the procurement from political intervention.
Bangladesh Association of Consulting Engineers (BACE) vice president Lailun Nahar Ekram argued that citizen intervention during the needs assessment at the grassroots level will produce better results for the government procurement.
There should be a strategy to involve different categories of people for different aspects of the procurement, she said.
At the technical and the policy levels, the intervention can be reserved for citizens with the professional knowledge and competence, but at the user end it is necessary to have community engagement, she explained.
Earlier in the meeting, the summary of the draft ‘Strategy Paper for Civic Engagement in Public Procurement’ of Bangladesh was presented by Institute of Governance Studies (IGS) AKM Nashirul Huq which has been prepared by AKM Nasirul Huq, consultant of Institute of Governance Studies (IGS) of Brac University.
Procurement above Tk 50 lakh at upazila level and Tk 2 crore and above at district level may be designed for third party monitoring, it said.
The draft paper suggested that the government will have to amend Public Procurement Act-2006 and Public Procurement Rules-2008 to provide a legal base of the mechanism considering the technical complexities in needs assessment, project design, bidding process and contract awarding process.
The main objectives of the third party monitoring process will be to ensure the quality and timely completion of works, prevent corruption in public expenditures and establish transparency and accountability in the development process.
Commenting on the strategy paper, planning minister AK Khandker said, ‘It is an eight year framework starting with outcome monitoring.’
‘I understand there were differences of opinion on the entry point of citizen engagement along the procurement chain – the process part involving decision making and the outcome part involving implementation of decisions, that is contract management and payment,’ he said.
The minister said, ‘Let me tell you that it would be ideal if we could start with process part, but the path is unknown, uncertain and unclear.’
‘Lest we should stumble and slip away, I think it would be better to avoid risk, and let outcome part be the starting point for monitoring,’ he said.
-With New Age input
