Govt to start full-fledged e-purchase by Dec

The government is working to roll out a full-fledged e-procurement system by December, which is four years ahead of schedule. 

The latest move was inspired by the success of a pilot project, which took off in 2011 with just four ministries. It is running without any glitch.

As of yesterday, 42,332 tenders were floated and 25,130 were awarded through the e-procurement system.

The government is determined to fully implement e-procurement by December 16 this year, said Md Shahid Ullah Khandaker, secretary of the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division. “We are on track.”

At present, the e-procurement system is running in 110 organisations under 30 ministries for projects under Tk 50 crore each.

The current system does not allow for electronic bidding for projects larger than Tk 50 crore each, and cannot include more than 120 organisations.

A tender for the updated software has been floated already, and should be awarded within the next two months, Khandaker said. 

The new software will not have a limit on the number of organisations, and will be equipped to handle work orders of all sizes, he said.

Currently, 200-300 tenders are floated every workday, and the number will be upwards of 500 when the system is fully implemented.

Dohatec New Media, a local software firm, developed the electronic procurement system for the government in 2011, and it is also building a similar system for Bhutan.

As of yesterday, the local government ministry floated 26,484 tenders and awarded 14,759 electronically, according to the Central Procurement Technical Unit website.

The road transport and bridges ministry has awarded 4,897 tenders, the water resources ministry 3,078, and the Rural Electrification Board 2,163.

The education ministry and the housing and public works have given 122 and 67 respectively through the system. 

The agriculture ministry has not awarded any tender electronically, though it floated some 68, and 17 other ministries that set up the e-GP system have not used it yet, senior officials said.