Planning Minister MA Mannan on Wednesday asked all government officials, especially those engaged in public procurement, to discharge their duties sincerely by maintaining transparency and accountability.
He made the call at a workshop on “How Senior Government Officials Can Support Achieving Value for Money Outcomes in Procurement” at a city hotel.
“Public procurement means spending money collected from public and for this, all concerned should be sincere to ensure better use of the people’s money in to boost growth,” he said.
Shish Haider Chowdhury, Director (Coordination and Training), CPTU, IMED presided over the function. He said public procurement is very significant in Bangladesh as the government spends 45 percent of the national budget.
“About 75 percent of ADP, which is about $16 billion, is spent on public procurement,” he said, adding that the optimum use of public investment and timely and quality service delivery depend on how well public procurement system functions.
He said the government has been implementing systemic reforms recognising the importance of public procurement that have helped improve delivery of public services.
Haider said this reform also increased efficiency, transparency and competition leading to an annual savings $150 million, an amount enough to build 1,500 km of rural roads or 3,000 primary schools in Bangladesh.
Abul Mansur Md Faizullah, Secretary of Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) and Mercy Miyang Tembon, Country Director for Bangladesh and Bhutan of World Bank (WB), its Lead Procurement Specialist Richard Olowo and consultant Sunil K Bhattacharya also spoke on the occasion.
