1.1 Introduction
This document provides principle guidelines of Electronic Government Procurement (e-GP) system of Bangladesh as provisioned under Section 65 of. Public Procurement Act, 2006 and Rule 128 of Public Procurement. Rules, 2008, for the use of the e-GP System. The guidelines provide general guidance on e-GP related technical issues, and set out the initial view on c- GP related working assumptions. The guidelines arc prepared also in consistent with the prevailing ICT Act 2009, Right to Information (R2I)’ 2009 and international practices on c-Government Procurement (e-GP). These guidelines demonstrate Government’s commitment to achieve greater openness and accountability in government procurement process.
The objective of the e-GP is to enhance (lie efficiency and ensure transparency in public procurement through the implementation of a comprehensive e-GP solution, to be used by any or all government organizations in the Country.
The e-GP system will be a single web portal, from where and through which procuring agencies and entities will perform their procurement related activities, i.e. to publish Annual Procurement Plans, Invitation for Tender (IFT), Request for Proposal (RFP); Request for Quotation (RFQ), ‘render/ Application.” Proposals submission, Opening. K valuation, Contract Award Notices, Contract management, Payments, Procurement Management Information System with Key Procurement Performance Indicator Reports and other procurement related information as required by the PPA 2006 and PPR, 2008, using a dedicated secured web based dashboard. The e-GP System will be hosted in e-GP Data Center at CPTU and e-GP web portal will be accessible for (heir use to procuring agencies and entities through web access. The system will be implemented in all the procuring entities of the government of Bangladesh.
All the stakeholders including general public, tenderers/applicants/ consultants, procuring entities, payment service providers, development partners, media, e-GP System administrators and auditors get access to c- GP system and information as specified in the Terms and conditions of use, and Disclaimer and Privacy Policy.
These guidelines provide e-GP general technical operational guidance only; no attempt is made to provide a guide to (he Procurement, ICT Act, R2I Act itself, or to the associated Code of Practice, which arc already available elsewhere. However, the aspects of those Acts relevant to (he e-GP System that are most likely to affect general users have been discussed.
These guidelines represent the Government’s view of the application of the e-GP System for carrying out public procurement activities online. However, the public entities shall remain responsible for making their own judgments in individual cases.
The e-GP System and its guiding principles are not intended to be static, and shall be revised as necessary in the light of experience being gathered during the system run.
1.2 Short title and commencement
1.2.1 These Guidelines shall be called e-Government Procurement (e-GP) Guidelines.
1.2.2 These guidelines shall be effective immediately and shall be applicable for e-GP System in any form of implementation pilot, roll-out or open for all.
1.3 Definitions
The key terms as used in guidelines shall have the following meanings provided as follows unless otherwise noted
“Act”
means The Public Procurement Act, 2006 (Act no. 24 of 2006) along with the subsequent amendments;
“Advertisement”
means an advertisement published under Section 40 of the Act in newspapers, websites or any other mass media for the purposes of wide publicity;
“Approval Procedures”
means the approval procedures of a Tender or a Proposal as detailed in Rule 36 of PPR 2008;
“Auditors”
means the Comptroller and Auditor General of Bangladesh and its representative, or any external, internal and information technology auditors recognized by national and international professional bodies or Government of Bangladesh and assigned for the purpose of audit;
“CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart)”
is a spam prevention system, displayed as random words or letters in distorted fashion that cannot be deciphered by people, but only by software, to ensure that a human is making an online transaction rather than a computer;
“Centralized registration system’’
means the single place for all e-GP users to register and provide credential documents for verification for authenticity for conducting different activities by utilizing tools provided by the e-GP system;
“Certification Authority (CA)”
means a trusted organization (or server) that maintains and issues digital certificates;
“Consultant”
means a Person under contract with a Procuring Entity for providing intellectual and professional services.;
“Contractor”
means a Person under contract with a Procuring Entity for the execution of any Works;
“Contract Price”
is the price stated in the Notification of Award and thereafter as adjusted in accordance with the provisions of the Contract;
“CPTU”
means the Central Procurement Technical Unit, established by the government in the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division of the Ministry of Planning, for carrying out the purposes of the act and the rules;
“Dashboard”
means an interactive user interface that organizes and presents information and links to the different relevant functions into a unified display in a way that is easy to access, track and transact;
“Days”
means calendar days unless otherwise specified as working days:
“Date & Time”
means e-GP Data Center Time stamping server date and server time hosted by CPTU/IMED in its premises in Dhaka. Bangladesh;
“Delegation of Financial Powers”
means the instructions with regard to the delegation of financial authority, issued from time to time, relating to the conduct of public procurement or sub-delegation of financial powers under such delegation;
“Digital Signature’’
means an electronic signature used through asymmetric cryptography that can be used to authenticate the identity of the sender of a message or the signer of a document, and possibly to ensure that the original content of the message or document that has been sent is unchanged;
“Electronic’’
means any electrical, digital, magnetic, optical electromagnetic, Internet, wireless or other form of technology that entails capabilities similar to these technologies;
“Electronic Signature’’ or “e-Signature’’
means a signature in electronic form attached to or logically associated with an electronic record, in the form of electronic symbol or a process attached to or logically associated with documents, and executed, adopted or agreed upon by a person with the intent to sign the documents;
“Evaluation Committee’’
means a ‘fender or a Proposal Evaluation Committee constituted under Section 7 of the PPA-2006, and number of members as provisioned these guidelines;
“Evaluation Report’’
means the report prepared after the evaluation of tenders, Quotations, Expressions of interest or Proposals;
”e-Advertisement’’
means advertisement through e-GP portal
“e-Contract Management System’’
means the processes involved between the issuance of a work order and completion of the work handled electronically with the tools available e-GP System;
“e-GP’’
means procurement by a Procuring Entity using the Electronic Government Procurement (e-GP) System developed, hosted and operated by the Government of Bangladesh through CPTU/IMED, Ministry of Planning under the e-GP guidelines;
”e-Lodgment”
means submitting tender documents through the e-GP system to participate in a tender, and legally binds the tenderer with the particular tender as authentic tender participant:
“e-Payment System”
means electronic payment methods available, and the processing of transactions and their application within e-GP users and payment service providers of the e-GP system;
“e- Publishing”
means publish documents by utilizing the e-GP system;
“Form’’
means a form, also include formal, prepared in e-GP System with necessary modifications in compliance with the forms and formats appended to PPR-2008, and to the standard Documents issued there under and also means the those forms converted into digital form;
“Goods”
means raw materials, products and equipment and objects in solid, liquid or gaseous form, electricity, and related Services provided that the value of such Services docs not exceed that of flic Goods themselves;
“Head of the Procuring Entity (HOPE)”
means the Secretary of a Ministry or a Division, the Head of a Government Department or Directorate; or the Divisional Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner, District Judges, or the Chief Executive, by whatever designation it may be called, of a local Government agency, an autonomous or semi- autonomous body or a corporation, or a. corporate body established under the Companies Act;
“Intellectual and Professional Services”
means Services performed by Consultants with outputs of advisory, design, supervision or transfer of expertise;
“Invitation For Tenders (IFT)”
means all documents, including those either attached or incorporated by reference, used for soliciting tenders;
“Opening Committee”
means a Tender Opening The (TOC) or a Proposal Opening Committee (POC) constituted under Section 6 of the PPA-2006, and number as provisioned in these guidelines;
“Performance Security”
means security provided by a contractor solely for the protection of the purchasing agency or user agency receiving the materials services, or construction, conditioned, upon, faithful performance of the contract in accordance with plans, specifications, and conditions of the contract;
“Person”
means and includes an individual, body of individuals, sole proprietorship, partnership, company, association or cooperative society that wishes to participate in Procurement proceedings;
”Procurement’’
means the purchasing or hiring of Goods, or acquisition of Goods through purchasing and hiring; and-/or the execution of Works, and / or performance of Services by any contractual means;
“Procuring Entity”
means an entity having administrative and financial powers to undertake Procurement of Goods, Works or Services using public funds;
“Project Manager”
is ;the person named: in the Contract or any other competent person lawfully appointed by the Procuring Entity and notified to the Contractor, who is responsible for supervising the execution of the Works and administering the Contract;
“Public funds’’
means any funds allocated! to a Procuring Entity under a Government budget, or loan, grants and credits placed at the disposal of a Procuring Entity through the Government by the development partners or foreign states or organizations;
“Public Procurement”
means Procurement using public funds;
“Quotation”
means the price offer received e-GP System from Tenderers for the supply of readily available standardized Goods, Works or physical Services subject to the financial limitation as prescribed by the Rules;
“Related Services”
means services relating to the contracts of the supply of goods;
“Request for Proposals (RFP)”
means all documents, including those either attached or incorporated by reference, utilized for- soliciting proposals;
“Responsive”
means qualified for consignation on the basis of evaluation criteria so declared and specified In the Tender Document or in the Request for Proposal Document;
“Services’’
means, goods /related Services, / physical Services, or intellectual and professional Services;
“Short-List”
means £ list of applicants deemed suitable to be invited to submit proposals for intellectuals and professional service following the evaluation of Expression of Interest;
”Scheduled Bank”
means a bank for the time being included in the list of banks maintained under sub-clause (a) of clause (2) of Article 37 of Bangladesh Bank order 1972.
“Signature”
means a distinctive mark or characteristic indicating identity;
“Sub-consultant”
means any person or entity to whom/which the Consultants subcontract any part of the contracted Services;
“Sub-contractor”
is a person or corporate body who has a Contract with the Contractor to carry out a pail of the work in the Contract, which includes work on the Site;
“Supplier”
means a Person under contract with a Procuring Entity for the supply of Goods and related Services under the Contract;
“Tender or Proposal”
depending on the context, means a tender or a proposal submitted by a tenderer or a consultant for delivery of goods, works or services to a procuring entity in response to an invitation for tender or a request for proposal; and for the purpose of the act, tender also includes quotation;
“Tenderer”
means a person that submits a tender in response to an invitation for tenders;
“Tender Security”
means an acceptable form of security, cither in the form of bank guarantee* or pay order or bank draft;
“Tender Document or Request for Proposal Document”
means the document provided by a Procuring Entity lo a Tenderer or a Consultant as a basis for preparation of its lender or Proposal through the e-GP System;
“Workflow management system”
means a system of overseeing the process of passing information, documents, and tasks from one employee or machine within a business to another;
“Works”
means all Works associated with the construction, reconstruction, site preparation, demolition, repair, maintenance or renovation of railways, roads, highways or a building, an infrastructure or structure or an installation or any construction work relating to excavation, installation of equipment and materials, decoration, as well as physical Services ancillary to Works, if the value of those Services does not exceed that of the Works themselves;
