Planning Minister MA Mannan today said that the government has unleashed a lot of public works and attained massive successes through e-procurement which is a positive step forward towards ensuring transparency.
“Our government has unleashed massive works through e procurement and we can claim that in louder voice. Now the trend of manipulation centering tendering has been eradicated and all can participate in the tendering process without any hassle through electronic government procurement,” he said.
The minister was addressing a workshop titled “Innovations in Public Service Delivery: Issues of up-scaling four key seventh plan priorities” held at the Brac Center Inn Auditorium in the city.
Terming this e-tendering process as a positive step forward towards ensuring transparency, Mannan informed that all the public works would gradually come under the e-GP system while it would be made more strengthened as well as it’s coverage would be widened in the coming days.
He said that the government is taking several innovative measures to improve the lives of its citizen, and simultaneously increase the efficiency, transparency and accountability of the delivered services.
The speakers at the workshop identified some areas like scaling up electronic government procurement, electronic land mutation, strengthening the Union Digital Centers and the Village Court system as some high-impact initiatives.
Organized by the Copenhagen Consensus Center and BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD), the workshop discussed the key challenges of upscaling the four key initiatives and the way forward.
The Planning Minister emphasized the need for quality data for better government decision making. He also appreciated the research done by BIGD.
Mannan also vowed that the government is committed to strengthen further the capacity of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) and the Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) for generating more useful data.
Former Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Atiur Rahman, who was a special commentator in the workshop, pointed out that Bangladesh has two important dividends — around 80 million young population and density dividend — that make many service and infrastructures scalable.
He also said that digital culture will be crucial in maximizing the dividend, as it directly connects public service providers with citizens. “It provides them with a mechanism for providing direct feedback,”
Nahim Razzaq, MP spoke at the workshop as special guest while Executive Director of Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE) Rasheda K Choudhury, Project Director of a2i Md. Mustafizur Rahman spoke at the workshop.
Dr. Imran Matin, Executive Director of BIGD, chaired the workshop while Dr. Sultan Hafeez Rahman, Senior Procurement Specialist of World Bank Ishtiaque Siddique, and Sarder M. Assaduzzaman of UNDP also spoke.
(BSS)
