Tendering and evaluation process enhancement for sustainable procurement in public sector of Bangladesh

Abstract

Bangladesh's public procurement framework is well-documented and arranged hierarchically, with clearly defined precedence, in accordance with international standards. However, sustainable public procurement has not yet made its way into public procurement legislation or practices in tendering and its evaluation process. Therefore, this research has been conducted with a view to attain a better perception of how sustainable public procurement can be enhanced tender document and evaluation process in sustainable issues like environmental, social, and economic considerations in public procurement. This research also intends to figure out how government organizations prepared the tender document and evaluate the tender in public procurement. In order to assess the tender document and its evaluation criteria, the study conducted ten interviews with the procurement officers from various government organizations through semi-structured questionnaire survey. The findings revealed that 80% respondents felt that they have enough training & capability to conduct public procurement activity, however 30% officials agreed that they no clear concept about economic and environmental aspect of sustainability and 20% of total participants have no idea about social sustainability. The results also finds that 50% respondents rarely use CO2 reduction and 30% of the participants never use alternative energies: e.g.: solar, wind etc. as a sustainable procurement practice in their division. On the other hand, 30% of respondents always use fair trade, Fair pay and labor law protections indicators. Among the numerous challenges, lack of expertise and absence of effective organizational policy framework & practice are identified as the highest barriers to sustainability practices (80% of the respondents) followed by the Inadequate political will and lack of awareness (70% of the respondents). Finally, the findings and suggestions of the study can be guidelines for the practitioners and policymakers in terms of procurement sector.