Experts on Monday said that although the country’s economy is expanding with a steady GDP growth rate of 8.1 percent, it fails to ensure full implementation of the budget as the project works are often delayed resulting in rise in expenditure.
“All concerned should work sincerely for speeding up project implementation in addition to maintaining quality for achieving the government’s target of graduating Bangladesh to a developed country by 2041,” experts made the observation while speaking at the workshop of Government-Tenderers’ Forum (GTF) at the Circuit House in Barishal.
Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) Secretary Abul Mansur M Faizullah attended the workshop as the chief guest while Divisional Commissioner of Barishal Mohammad Yamin Chowdhury, Public Policy Implementation Advisor of the Central Procurement Unit (CPTU) under IMED AKM Fazlul Karim also spoke at the program as special guests.
Deputy Commissioner of Barishal SM Ajior Rahman presided over the workshop while Principal Project Management Consultant of Digitizing Implementation Monitoring and Public Procurement Project (DIMAPPP) Mosta Gausul Haque moderated the workshop.
Senior Deputy Director of BCCP Khadija Bilkis made a presentation on GTF while IMED Deputy Secretary M Aknoor Rahman, among others, spoke on the occasion. The workshop was organized by CPTU under DIMAPPP of the World Bank and facilitated by Bangladesh Center for Communication Program (BCCP).
Mentioning that the country is advancing towards achieving Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s target of turning Bangladesh into a developed country by 2041, Abul Mansur M Faizullah said the present project implementation pace is not satisfactory and it should be accelerated. He said the concerned officials are mainly responsible for slow progress in ADP implementation which is increasing the project cost; he urged them to come out of this bottleneck.
Mohammad Yamin Chowdhury said the country is advancing faster by ensuring transparency in public procurement through eGP.
Representatives from various procuring entities and tenderers in the district participated at the workshop and raised the problems faced by them in the procurement process. The senior IMED and CPTU officials assured them of resolving the problems with highest priority.
The speakers viewed that institutionalizing of GTF can make public spending effective and transparent through ensuring proper implementation of development projects.
(TAA)