Habibullah Mohammad Himel
Department of Public Administration. Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Rajshahi, Rajshahi, Bangladesh
Shuvra Chowdhury
Department of Public Administration. Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Rajshahi, Rajshahi, Bangladesh
Public procurement denotes the attainment of goods, works, or services required by governments through contracts. Public procurement is usually plagued with covert practices and exclusive forms of corruption in Bangladesh. The cost of development finance is much higher in public procurement than that of others in Bangladesh. There have been no unified rules or laws regarding government purchases since 2006. The Government of Bangladesh enacted its ever first act of public procurement, the Public Procurement Act, 2006 (PPA, 2006), and the Public Procurement Rules, 2008 (PPR, 2008). The procurement entity must disseminate procurement information through electronic medium i.e. Electronic Government Procurement (hereinafter e-GP). Despite passing over an era since its enactment, the role of the PPA, 2006 remains seriously under-researched area, specifically there is no research on the issue of the grievance redress mechanisms. The study has been done using a qualitative case study methodology, backed by both primary and secondary documentary analysis. Based on empirical data, this paper explained the role of digitalization in the process of government procurement and depicted changes that have been brought by the implementation of e-GP in government purchases. However, it concluded that the grievance redress mechanism in the process of procurement is only existing in the policy papers which need mandatory implementation for a transparent and accountable governance system. Despite the significant changes and up-gradation in digital government procurement, it is hardly found that the GRM process is digitalized. And the mass tenderers are yet to be acquainted with the improvised system apart from the consistent efforts of the government.
[1] McCourt, W., 2013. Models of Public Service Reform: A Problem-Solving Approach. Policy Research Working Paper, No. 6428. Washington D.C: The World Bank.
[2] Chowdhury, S., Panday, P.K., 2018. Strengthening local governance in Bangladesh: Reforms, participation and accountability. New York, the USA: Springer.
[3] Obaidullah, A.T.M., 1999. Bangladesh public administration: Study of major reforms, constraints and strategies. Academic Press and Publishers Ltd. Dhaka.
[4] Finan, W.F., Dean, A.L., 1957. Procedure for preparation and implementation of administrative reforms, International Review of Administrative Sciences. 23(4), 438.
[5] Lane, J., 2009. State Management: An Enquiry into Models of Public Administration & Management, Routledge, USA and Canada.
[6] Djankov, S., 2016. The Happiness Gap in Eastern Europe. Journal of Comparative Economics. 44(1), 108-124.
[7] Hoque, R., 2010. Public Procurement Law in Bangladesh: From Bureaucratisation to Accountability. NUJS LAW REVIEW. 3(3), 281-29.
[8] Mahmood, S.A.I., 2010. Public procurement and corruption in Bangladesh: confronting the challenges and opportunities. Journal of public administration and policy research. 2(6), 103-111.
[9] Ahmed, F.U., 2013. Application of Result Based Management in the Public Sector Projects: A study on the Readiness Situation of Bangladesh. Unpublished PhD Thesis, Institute of Bangladesh Studies (IBS), University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh.
[10] Islam, M.A., Akhter, S., Islam, M., 2018. Health Financing in Bangladesh: Why Changes in Public Financial Management Rules Will Be Important, Health Systems & Reform. 4(2), 65-68. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/23288604.2018.1442650
[11] Kamruzzaman, A., 2015. Measuring Procurement Performance of LGED and RHD Based on Key Performance Indicators. BRAC Institute of Governance and Development, BRAC University.
[12] Islam, M.S., 2011. Improving Transparency in Public Procurement in Bangladesh: Use of Right to Information and Whistleblower’s Protection laws at sub national level. paper presented in the USA.
[13] Sarker, T.K., 2018. Implementing e-GP in Bangladesh: A Perspective of Works Procurement in LGED. BRAC Institute of Governance and Development, BRAC University.
[14] Opatha, H.H.D.N.P., 2019. Defining a Grievance: A Theoretical Examination of An Old Issue, Sri Lankan Journal of Human Resource Management. 9(1), 21-41.
[15] Glueck, W.F., 1979. Foundations of Personnel, Texas: Business Publications Inc.
[16] MoP, 2008. Public Procurement Act (PPA) (2006), Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU), Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED), Ministry of Planning (MoP), Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh. Bangladesh Gazette, dated: 27 January 2008.
[17] Brennen, J.S., Kreiss, D., 2016. Digitalization. In JensenK. B.CraigR. T.PooleyJ. D.RothenbuhlerE. W. (Eds.), The International Encyclopedia of Communication Theory and Philosophy (pp. 556–566). Wiley Blackwell. 10.1002/9781118766804.wbiect111.
[18] Muro, M., et al., 2017. Digitalization and the American workforce. Washington, DC. Metropolitan Policy Program Brookings Institution. Retrieved from https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/mpp_2017nov15_digitalization_full_report.pdf
[19] Abdallah, W., 2016. Benefits and Costs of Introducing e-Procurement in Bangladesh. Copenhagen Consensus Center.
[20] National e-Government Procurement (e-GP) portal of the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, http://www.eprocure.gov.bd (Retrieved on 19 June, 2019).
[21] Ahmed, H., 2018. e- Procurement and transparency in public sector: A case of Local Government Engineering Department (LGED). BRAC Institute of Governance and Development, BRAC University.
Copyright © 2022 Author(s)
This is an open access article under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License.
