Civil society member Hasina Begum Nila rises from her chair and seizes the opportunity to pose a question, as soon as the floor is opened for doing so. She confidently asks the panel if the Citizen Engagement in Public Procurement initiative is being replicated in City Corporation and municipalities. This panel consists of the Secretary of Implementation Monitoring & Evaluation Division (IMED), the Director of Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU), Divisional and Deputy Commissioner of Barishal, Advisors to the World Bank and a Team Leader of DIMAPPP Project team. As the the Secretary addresses her question, the Director notes it down for future reference. Thanking the panelists, she expresses her wish to continue monitoring the procurement work in her locality with the help of Citizen Engagement Forum.
For years now, the Government of Bangladesh has been working to develop a systemic change in the public procurement system. With an aim to promote transparency, efficiency, and accountability in the system, CPTU under the IMED of the Ministry of Planning (MoP) is implementing a project titled: “Digitising Implementation Monitoring and Public Procurement Project (DIMAPPP)”, funded by the World Bank. BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD) has been playing a role of Consultant to the Citizen Engagement (CE) component by engaging citizens to monitor public procurement work in their local areas.
Citizen Engagement Forum organized by BIGD in collaboration with CPTU and CEP (Community Empowerment Program) of BRAC, has been a platform for people of similar interest or work area related to procurement to come together and share their views on DIMAPPP, while gaining further knowledge on the art of procurement itself.
Under the CE component, 24 divisional forums are to be hosted in all 8 divisions from 2019 to 2021. As of June 2020, five forums have been hosted in Rangpur, Rajshahi, Chattogram, Sylhet, and Barishal targeted towards people who are working in the field of public procurement or have an interest in it.
So far, sessions across all the divisions have been greeted by a large crowd of enthusiastic participants. Professionals from multiple sectors, such as procurement specialists, government officials, engineers, civil society members, tenderers, and Citizen Monitoring Group members have attended the sessions, leading to diverse conversations and information exchange.
Local citizens have been able to get an elaborate idea from the authorities regarding the citizen engagement process and intricacies of it. The Government of Bangladesh, with the support of World Bank, has been working on procurement reformation including digitalizing the sector to reduce irregularities. Citizens get the opportunity to hear about all these reformation attempts from the practitioners of this sector.
The forums are usually divided into two segments. In the first segment, BIGD, as the implementing partner of the CE component, presents the most updated findings from the field—number of sites where CE model has been piloted, the process of monitoring, number and types of grievances, the redressal mechanism, and other findings. To share the information straight from the field, the designated field officer along with some citizen group members always remain present.
After the BIGD team share their implementation updates and experience in the first half, the participants share their thoughts with the Ministry officials and BIGD researchers by the end of the first session. This part brings forth the popular perception about CE model. Researchers are able to connect with people from different professions and benefit from the concerns and suggestions shared.
Although fewer women than men attended the forums, their participation has been very vibrant. Women usually take up the front seats and boldly speak up about their experience in this male-dominated sector.
To allow more constructive discussion, a group work session is arranged in the second half where participants gather in groups of civil society members, tenderers, government officials, and Citizen Monitoring group members. This group work allows same group of people to discuss and debate, analyze the pros and cons of the CE model, and suggest improvements.
The groups then present their findings to the audiences. The series of interactions creates a cooperative environment where participants get to know all the stakeholders better, as they communicate with each other. Transparency and accountability—the two most essential key components in introducing Citizen Engagement in Public Procurement are also cultivated in the forum as there is no choice but to be honest and feel ownership towards the project so many people are committed to work on while being amidst them.
Despite the forum taking place in different divisions with different groups of people working on diverse projects, their concerns were found to be similar. Participants found corruption decreasing, development of citizen’s ownership in public procurement, and overall improvement in the quality of work as the most important advantages of this component. On the other hand, conflict of interest among members, and the lack of strong technical knowledge among citizens were pointed out as some disadvantageous issues. Suggestions were made such as developing a fixed set of guidelines for the members, and strict evaluation of the committee both before appointing the members and after concluding a project. Every suggestion, pros and cons are noted down and submitted to the Ministry of Planning to help them further develop the system.
This forum gives all the participants the space to be themselves and voice out their opinion, learn more on public procurement and DIMAPPP, and obtain the zeal to work more passionately in the development of Bangladesh. With such enthusiastic participation of people contributing in our development sector and the knowledge we gain through the forum, we are now closer than ever in bringing a systemic change to our public procurement system.
Insiya Khan is a Research Associate at BIGD.
