Bangladesh's success in public procurement: Sustained reform really pays off
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A healthy mix of innovation, continuous engagement, and effective implementation can bring about sustained transformation in public procurement. A more effective and transparent procurement system frees up public money for achieving more and better development outcomes and improving the delivery of public services.
Procurement makes up a substantial portion of government spending with significant impact on the delivery of public services such as water, health, education, and other infrastructure. Bangladesh spends about $16 billion or about one third of its annual budget on public procurement. Of this, $13 billion is spent on the public procurement of goods, works, and services for the implementation of development programs, constituting approximately 70% of the country’s development budget.
Given the importance of procurement in achieving national development goals, This strategic engagement spanned over 15 years through three successive projects as opposed to an ad-hoc, one-off intervention.
These sustained efforts provided with the opportunities for deeper and longer engagement with relevant stakeholders while allowing for thoughtful design and careful sequencing of reform phases. More importantly, these efforts have helped ensure political buy-in leading to a comprehensive and sustainable transformation in the system. The remarkable results are now visible, far-exceeding everyone’s expectations.
Results of reform
The interventions, for example, resulted in significant cost savings for both the procuring agencies and the tenderers. On average, .
Further results included enhanced efficiency, transparency, increased competition and overall, better delivery of public services. (See table below for more details)
In 2017, Nielsen Company (Bangladesh), a market research firm, conducted an opinion survey on procurement reforms covering a target group of tenderers, procuring entities, civil society members, media, and financial institutions. Overall, 79.3 % of respondents were positive about improved transparency in public procurement; 76.6 % expressed procurement reforms as effective; 72.3 % recognized the system as efficient; and 81.9 % mentioned improved accountability.
How did it happen?
The reform process in Bangladesh began in 2002 with the World Bank Country Procurement Assessment Report which identified several areas of improvement in the country’s public procurement practice, including: absence of legislations, bureaucratic processes, manual procedures, capacity constraints, and inordinate delays. To address them all, first the technical aspects of reform were set in place: an institutional and legal framework was developed. Further, a central regulatory agency, a Central Procurement Technical Unit, within the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) of the Planning Ministry, was also established in 2002, followed by a Public Procurement Act (2006) and Public Procurement Rules (2008). With this foundation, the reform was rolled out.
The reform process required not only technical but also substantial political and behavioral interventions. A few integrated elements, for example, were critical for success. These elements included: managing the political economy, developing innovative technology, such an electronic government procurement system, e-GP, building capacity of public officials and tendering community, involving citizens in the monitoring of public procurement contracts, and measuring procurement performance through data analytics across dozens of indicators.
More importantly, these efforts have been supported by a nation-wide stakeholders’ engagement and communication program to sensitize and promote knowledge, awareness, and participation of key stakeholders, including government officials at different tiers, tendering communities, civil society, journalists, legal professionals, private sector, financial institutions, and, of course, citizens at large.
All these efforts show that reforming public procurement systems requires a sustained and long-term effort, through which every relevant stakeholder needs to do their part and has a lot to contribute. At times, this may not be easy to implement, but the results on the ground and the savings achieved show that these efforts are worth making
This information inspiration us to go forward with the help of World Bank Group.
Public Procurement in Bangladesh now a days is really tranaperant and efficient thanks to the intervention of World Bank. More initiative should be taken to cover whole procurement under automation including payment to the bidders.
World Bank and CPTU made revolutionary changes of public procurement in Bangladesh. It could be even better if all amendments of Public Procurement Act/Rules can be revised. Lottery can't be a selection method.
Very good write-up. Thanks.
Proud to see the accomplishments achieved in Bangladesh through the implementation of e-GP. Also proud to be the architect of the Bangladesh e-GP System. Congratulations to the CPTU, the World Bank, and all involved stakeholders for more success in the days ahead.
Very happy by reading this report. Bangladesh is now capable to demand as transparent country in the public procurement sector as it has introduced e-GP system under the leadership of CPTU. We expect all sorts of world bank support to improve further e-GP system up-gradation. Still we should try to find existing loopholes in the e-GP system in Bangladesh. This report will be helpful for my PhD research.
Feel proud that during my tenure in the CPTU as DG, with the help of the World Bank, especially Dr. Zafrul, and our international consultant, Rajesh Shakya, we could successfully develop, operationalize and roll out the e-GP through out the country. It was a memorable moment for us all when our PM launched the e-GP portal. Bangladesh e-GP is one of the largest collaborative software and thousands can concurrently use the system using their secured dashboard.