Benefits and difficulties of Electronic Government Procurement (e- GP); an analysis of Local Government Engineering Department (LGED), Thakurgaon

Abstract

Ministry of Planning took initiative to bring all government purchases under similar process known as electronic government procurement (e-GP). The traditional manual system of procurement has enough scope of corruption and irregularities. Even during submission of tender the tenderers have to face threats from criminal persons. There are vested quarters behind the criminal who control the procurement activities. People are to suffer for such unwanted events. For resolving the issues, government introduced e-GP system in 2011 for procurement in Roads and Highway Department (RHD), Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB), Rural Electrification Board (REB) and Local Government Engineering Department (LGED). e-GP uses unique web portal for conducting procurement activities of government agencies with transparency and accountability. In this system procuring entity and bidder both can save time and money. Electronic government procurement is nothing but an updated and real time internet based system for procurement of Goods, Works and Services using public fund. The efforts of government should be appreciated for digitizing the public procurement involving approximately 1500 billion development budget every year. This research investigates the e-GP system through the eye of Local Government Engineering Department. There are a lot of factors either making obstacle or benefitting the procurement process through e-GP in LGED. The questionnaire survey discovered many interesting factors. Respondents cited bitter experience of traditional paper procurement system. A lot of impediments have been observed such as inadequate training and misunderstanding about the system, insufficient capability of CPTU server, ill trained contractor encompassing all stakeholders. Respondents suggested a lot of steps to be taken for future improvement in e-GP system. Training to be imparted to various stakeholders should be innovative and interactive in nature. The suggested training was consisted of online and offline. Some respondents recommended to improve the interface of the website making a bit more user friendly. If the recommendations are taken into practice, 100% coverage of all government procurement through e-GP is possible effectively and efficiently.