An assessment of the existing public procurement system in Bangladesh will be conducted to see where it stands now and what needs to be done to improve the situation.

The Central Procurement Technical Unit and the World Bank have jointly undertaken the task to be accomplished through MAPS meaning Methodology for Assessing Procurement Systems.

MAPS is a globally accepted tool to assess public procurement systems in their entirety. It is universal and can be used by all countries regardless of income level or development status.

A committee has been constituted to facilitate the assessment work. The 11-member committee is headed by the Director General of CPTU having members from LGED, BWDB, BREB, RHD, PPPA, CGA, C&AG, ACC, MoH &FW and member-secretary from CPTU.

The assessment is expected to produce a report which will present the existing legal framework and system of procurement and also what is being practiced on the ground.

It will use some indicators. Both qualitative and quantitative data will be there.  The assessment will also capture some recommendations for the policy makers to make further improvement in the procurement system.

A meeting in this connection was held at CPTU on May 22, 2018 with the DG, CPTU and Additional Secretary Md Faruque Hossain in the chair. Lead Procurement Specialist Dr Zafrul Islam of World Bank, representatives of the government agencies and CPTU officials were present in the meeting.

The assessment is expected to be finished by February 2019.