Citizen engagement in public procurement in the form of monitoring contract implementation has produced better results.

Citizens in their own areas of contract implementation lodged 32 grievances about the quality of works in construction of roads and schools in 16 upazillas with the concerned supervising engineers of Local Government Engineering Department (LGED). 

Of the grievances 30 have been settled and two remain unresolved.

The citizens are enthusiastic in monitoring contracts, particularly the retired ones. Due to household chores, women find it difficult to make time for monitoring, signboards at contract sites contribute to efficient information dissemination; rebuilding sense of ownership and empowerment through the process are developing in citizen monitoring.

These are some of the field findings captured by the BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD) and presented by Dr Mirza Hassan, Adjunct Fellow of BIGD, in the 13^th meeting of the Public-Private Stakeholders Committee (PPSC) which was organized by the Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU) of IME Division, Ministry of Planning on 22 August 2019 at NEC Conference Room in Dhaka.

Planning Minister MA Mannan MP, Chair of the 38-member PPSC comprising representatives from the public and the private sectors, presided over the meeting while Additional Secretary and DG CPTU Md. Ali Noor welcomed the PPSC members as the member-secretary. Secretary, IME Division, Mr Abul Mansur Md Faizullah ndc also spoke on the occasion.

As remedies to the complaints of the citizens, five trucks of low quality brick chips were sent back from the construction of road site in Dhunat, Rajshahi, two trucks of bad quality bricks returned by the engineer in Keshobpur, Khulna, 3 inches base instead of 2 inches was constructed after citizens complained in Chakaria in Chattogram, tenderers in some more upazillas had to change low quality brick chips after citizens complained to supervising engineers.

The Planning Minister said that the government is very sincere about citizen engagement in public procurement and it wants to stop drainage of public money. He cautioned about fake complaints, suggested formation of a small sub-committee of PPSC, installation of CCTVs at project sites, training for tenderers and improvement in the quality of public works.

The CPTU has been implementing the citizen engagement under a project titled, “Digitizing Implementation Monitoring and Public Procurement Project (DIMAPPP)” supported by the World Bank.

The 16 upazillas where the citizen monitoring is now going on are Bajitpur, Manohardi, Haluaghat, Madan, Keshabpur, Shyamnagar, Dhunat, Raiganj, Kishoreganj, Taraganj, Baniachong, Kamalganj, Bakerganj, Mirzaganj, Lohagara and Chakoria.

The CPTU has selected 48 upazillas for citizen monitoring of public procurement as per the decision of the 12^th PPSC meeting. The monitoring in the 32 more upazillas will begin in 2020. In total monitoring in all 48 upazillas will continue up to 2022.   

The BIGD has engaged BRAC Community Empowerment Programme (CEP) for facilitating the citizen monitoring.

The next PPSC meeting will be held in December 2019.