Two banks join govt's e-purchase system

Eastern Bank and NRB Commercial Bank will now be able to collect fees and securities for the government's e-procurement system. 

The Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU) yesterday signed separate memoranda with EBL and NRBCB to this effect, which brought the number of banks involved with e-GP (government procurement) to 37.

The government plans to roll e-GP in all government procuring entities by 2018, Md Shahid Ullah Khandaker, secretary of the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division, said at the signing ceremony.

The monitoring of the performance of procurement under e-GP is also done digitally now, and there is a 24-hour e-GP helpdesk at CPTU for bidders and procuring entities, he added.

Currently 1,875 government procuring entities under 96 agencies of 24 ministries procure through the e-GP system.

The payment gateway of the Dutch-Bangla Bank and Brac Bank is integrated with the e-GP system and allows the use of credit and debit cards for payments, the CPTU said in a statement. 

Faruque Hossain, director general of CPTU; Dewan Mujibur Rahman, managing director of NRB Commercial Bank, and Hasan O Rashid, deputy managing director of EBL, signed the deals.