Public procurement is one of the most crucial areas of government operations which involves the huge allocation of public funds and needs a considerable amount of technical expertise to be dealt with. This case study deals with procurement in the education sector, particularly procurement of textbooks and with specific attention to the production and quality of primary school textbooks and their distribution in Bangladesh. It will be important to note that textbook quality in this particular case study refers to the print quality and not the content. An assessment of the content of primary school textbooks goes beyond the scope of this case study. The study found that printing companies do not comply with set criteria and collusion between tenders as well as time constraints were major challenges in ensuring the quality of textbooks. The study recommends that there should be an improvement in the coordination and communication between NCTB and DPE (the two key agencies responsible for delivering textbooks) to tackle the identified challenges.
Authors: Aziz, Syeda Salina; Zillur, Kaneta
Type: Case Study
Year: 2016