Evaluating the e-GP system in Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB)

Abstract

Government of Bangladesh has implemented Electronic Government Procurement (e-GP) solutions in 2011 for its procurement as a step towards digital Bangladesh. Since then e-GP has brought a change in the businesses process of public procurement. There are limited empirical studies in the literature on the adoption of e-procurement in Bangladesh, that is, at the macro level. Nevertheless, such a study will help to develop policies, strategies, and procedures to implement e-GP. Understanding the importance of such a study, this study was conducted based on a questionnaire survey about the user experience and perception about e-GP in Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB). The main objective of this study is to identify how the users of e-GP are adopting it and what they think about it. A conceptual framework has been developed for the evaluation of e-GP, and this subsequently has been tested with data collected from BWDB. Also, this study examines the current status of e- GP acceptance in BWDB. Finally, some recommendation is proposed based on the conceptual and empirical analysis for the evaluation of e-GP. The results indicate that despite of some implementation challenges e-GP system has achieved a wider level of acceptance among Procuring Entities. Users have very strong perception regarding e-GP that this in future will be very helpful for ensuring transparency and accountability in Public Procurement Process. And also the think current e-GP system is showing above average level performance which is not that much dissatisfactory but there is options and opportunity to improve the performance.