International Development Association, the soft loan window of the World Bank, will provide Bangladesh with $34.5 million more funds for boosting electronic public procurement in the country.
The fund will be used to scale up the electronic procurement (e-GP) and online procurement performance monitoring in key public agencies under the ongoing WB-financed Second Public Procurement Reform Project.
In this regard, Economic Relations Division secretary Abul Kalam Azad and WB country director Johannes Zutt on Monday signed a financing agreement at the ERD conference room.
According to the agreement, the credit will carry a service charge at the rate of 0.75 per cent and will have 40 years to maturity, including a 10-year grace period.
Under the PPRP II, the government has already began electronic procurement as pilot basis in the four government agencies — Roads and Highways Department, Local Government Engineering Department, Rural Electrification Board and Bangladesh Water Development Board — that account for more than half of the total government procurement.
Earlier the WB provided $24.1 million for the PPRP II project.
The additional financing will deepen electronic procurement at these four agencies and will also scale up capacity development in 20 more agencies, covering health, education, power and public works, officials concerned said.
Expansion of procurement performance monitoring system will enable improved efficiency of government bidding. Within the next three years, it is expected that the four key agencies will have 100 per cent implementation of online procurement performance monitoring system, they said.
At the programme, Azad said that full-scale adoption of e-procurement would speed up the implementation of annual development programme.
Johannas Zutt, who is also the WB country director for Nepal, said, ‘Electronic procurement makes public contracting more transparent, more secure and more competitive helping to reduce inappropriate bidding practices and to ensure efficient use of taxpayers’ resources.’
-With New Age input
