Comparison of procurement performance of rural transport infrastucture project and construction of large bridge on upazila & union Roads project in LGED

Abstract

Bangladesh is a developing country. Until 2003, the country belonged no standard procurement rules and procedures. In 2003, by World Bank’s initiatives, Government of Bangladesh has made a revolution through introducing Public Procurement Regulation (PPR) 2003 which was legitimated in 2006 as Public Procurement Act (PPA) 2006 and Public Procurement Rules (PPR) 2008. The objectives of this research work intends assessment and compare performance of procurement process between two projects RTIP and LBC project of LGED and identify the factors which impact the performance of procurement and also suggest for improvement in procurement process. The main research questions are what factors which affect on performance of procurement and is there any difference in performance of procurement between GOB project and donor funded project? The methodology of this study to undertake (i) review of Procurement Guidelines of World Bank and PPR,2008 and PPA,2006; (ii) Key informants interviews, (iii) Questionnaire survey for primary data and (iii) Secondary Data collection from project offices . A questionnaire survey has been conducted in LGED for collection secondary data. The questionnaire has 13 close questions and 2 open questions. About 30 respondents responded this questionnaire. Secondary data collected from respective project files/records on the basis of 10 performance indicators (PI). 20 contracts have been selected from each project. The findings of this study are as following: There are many factors which affect the performance of procurement. These are lack of knowledge and commitment of different stakeholders, vast tender document, lack of ethical standard. Political influence and fund crisis are also barriers for procurement performance. Moreover PPR’2008 brings discipline and uniformity in public procurement. For the above findings some recommendations given below: Introduce training to increase knowledge and commitment of different stakeholders. A fit list may be prepared for posting a focal person for Procurement purpose in each project. Adapting a communication campaign for behavioral and attitude change for various groups of society, especially for political leaders, media persons. Introduce incentive/disincentive mechanism (reward and punishment) by initiating punitive actions for bad performance and reward for good performance. Introduce electronic government procurement (e-GP) in LGED. This is ensuring transparency and reducing unwanted disturbance.