A critical analysis on enhancing procurement process in public sector technical and university education in Bangladesh

Abstract

The focus of this research is to identify weaknesses of present procurement process in Technical and University Education Sector for enhancing the process and to assess the requirement of external support in each step of Procurement Life Cycle. This research has been conducted among the Principals of the Polytechnic Institutes and Technical Training Centers throughout Bangladesh and among the Subprojects Managers of the Higher Education Quality Enhancement Project (HEQEP) –who are mainly the senior university professors. The study shows that there are lack of experience and knowledge along with organizational weaknesses which has resulted inefficiencies in procurement process. The mean requirement of external support is as high as more than fifty percent in Technical Education Sector and it is almost twenty-five percent in University Education Sector. However, requirement of external support varies from institute to institute. From the findings of the study, we recommend a Central Procurement Support Service Unit for the Technical Education Sector for enhancing procurement process. On the contrary, we recommend that Planning and/or Engineering Division of every university can be developed to support procurement process within the university. We also recommend necessity of piloting Establishment of Procurement Support Service Unit.