Bangladesh: Introducing e-Government Procurement (e-GP) Abdus Sobhan Sikder Secretary, IMED, MOP

1. Bangladesh: Introducing e-Government Procurement (e-GP) Abdus Sobhan Sikder Secretary, IMED, MOP Amulya K Debnath Director General, Central Procurement Technical Unit (Washington D.C.; December 10, 2008)

2. Session Key Parts • Legislations • e-GP readiness & Implementation Status • Expected Outcomes • Challenges

3. Legislations • IT Act 2006 in place • IT Rules (at approval stage) • E-GP provisions in Public Procurement Act 2006 (PPA) & Public Procurement Rules 2008 (PPR) • E-GP Guidelines/ Rules (at drafting stage)

4. Legislative Readiness • Provisions in Public Procurement Act – 2006 for the uptake of e-GP • The Act includes a specific Section for e-Government Procurement (e-GP). It has fully allowed all kinds of online transactions resulting to online procurement by government agencies. Chapter Eight Use of Electronic Processing System in Public Procurement, etc. 65. e-Government Procurement 1. For carrying out the purposes of this Act, any or all government procurement under this Act may be undertaken using electronic processing system. 2. The electronic processing system and the principles governing such system shall be prescribed by the government Explanation: For the purposes of this section, ‘Electronic Processing System’ means the online processing of data through a website. Public Procurement Act -2006

5. Legislative Readiness • Public Procurement Rules – 2008 • Public Procurement Rules, enacted from January 31, 2008 clearly spells out the mandatory requirement of publishing the procurement information from different stages of procurement cycle to the CPTU website and also offers the strong basis for online procurement transactions.

6. e-GP Readiness • E-GP readiness assessment conducted in 2006

7. e-GP Implementation Status • Public Procurement Reform Project II (PPRPII) has one specific component to introduce e-GP on a pilot basis with the central database in the Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU), the nodal procurement policy unit of the Government. • Existing MIS (PROMIS) of CPTU has few features of e-GP (IFB publication, contract award publication, etc.) • Existing MIS will be enhanced to form first phase of e-GP for its piloting in four key target agencies (RHD, LGED, BWDB & REB)

8. e-GP Implementation Status Contd…. • Hardware for four target agencies and connectivity for selected procuring entities of those agencies are under procurement • e-GP system is under design/ development stage, with features in conformity with MDB Guidelines • Selected Procuring entities’ staff will undergo e-GP training. • Piloting of e-GP by June 2009

9. Key Featured of e-GP System Actors

11. Modules in e-GP System • Centralized Registration of Contractors/ Suppliers/ Consultants • Workflow Management • e-Tendering (e-Publishing/e-Advertisement, e-Lodgement, e-Evaluation, e-Contract award) • e-Contract Management (e-CMS) • e-Payments • Procurement Management Information System (PROMIS)

12. Security Features • Presentation Layer Security • Login/Password (email as Unique ID) • CAPTCHA : Verification code has to be entered as appeared in the ‘CAPTCHA’ and this is used to avoid automatic creation of users and to ensure that users are created manually. • Session level security • Transmission/Transaction Layer Security • Secured Socket Layer (SSL – 128 bit encryption) • Domain/Server level Session security • Electronic Signature/ Digital Signature based authenticity • Application Layer Security • Web services will be used to access different processes and services offered by different modules of the applications • Message will be transferred using XML packets through SOAP. • Automated virus scan

13. Security Features (continued…) • Database Layer Security • Bitwise encryption while streaming to and from database (bid box) • Confidential data like identity information will be tagged by MD5 for integrity • SQL injection proof data access codes will be written • Hardware Layer Security • 2 layer Firewalls to protect e-GP System access from Internet • Database will be kept in Intranet IP class behind firewall and application server will be kept in Public IP class • Database will be clustered • Hard drive will use RAID 5 hot swappable storage technology • Daily Data backup process will be automated • Mirror server will be hosted • Workflow based Security • Only authorized and authenticated users will have access to specific level of workflow. • Procuring Entity will have rights to manage users as per their needs

14. Expected Outcomes • Centralized database of Public Procurement Community (Procuring entities and Contractors/ Suppliers/ Consultants) • Standard way of carrying out the procurement with Standard document templates • Efficiency gain with the Procurement Workflow still keeping the same or with minimum optimization • Compliance to the PPA-2006 & PPR-2008 • Effective Monitoring and Evaluation Platform

15. Future Challenges • Bidding Communities Preparedness and Readiness (infrastructure & HR) • Finalization of e-GP guidelines/ rules • Enroot Trust on online transaction and e-Signature

16. THANK YOU !!!!!(CPTU website: www.cptu.gov.bd;Email: info@cptu.gov.bd)