& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Public Procurement Rules

Changes may hinder loans, support: ADB

Rejaul Karim Byron
After the World Bank's (WB) objection to the government's proposed amendments to the Public Procurement Act/Rules (PPA/PPR), the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has also cautioned that it may hinder ADB's loan and budget support.
"These changes could create significant implementation issues under our 50 loan projects and have serious implications for future ADB operations, including planned budget support, if enacted," ADB Country Director Paul J Heytens said in a letter to the Economic Relation Division (ERD) on
Wednesday.
Copies of the letter have been sent to the finance minister, planning minister and prime minister's finance and planning adviser.
Earlier, WB Country Director Xian Zhu had sent two letters to the government, and objected to six of the proposed amendments.
The government seeks amendments to about 50 articles of the PPA and PPR. Once the PPA and PPR are amended, it will allow the government to award contracts involving up to Tk 2 crore through lottery, and select contractors without any pre-qualifications.
The ADB country director in his letter also
FROM PAGE 1
said, "We would therefore be grateful if further details of the proposed changes could be shared with ADB and other interested DPs (development partners) so that we could better assess the implications for our operations, and continue the constructive dialogue in our collective efforts to further strengthen the I efficiency and transparency of the public procurement systems."
The letter said ADB has been using the country sys-j terns yet up imder the PPA/PPR for procurement following local competitive bidding procedures in many of the ADB projects here in Bangladesh.
It added. ADB along with other DPs has been fully committed to supporting the government's efforts to promote transparency, economy and efficiency in public procurement in Bangladesh, including through further refinements of the current rules and regulations.
The letter sent by the WB country director last week, said. "Some of the specific proposed changes in the existing provisions of PPR, being inconsistent with good procurement practices, could have serious implications for the bank's processing of future budget support operations and could restrict its ability to rely on the country system (PPA/PPR) in future operations."
The WB had also sent a letter in this regard last month. Then the country director held talks with ERD officials on this issue and sent the second letter.
The ambitious annual development programme (ADP) for the next fiscal year (FY) is 33 percent higher than the revised ADP for the current FY. Fifty-four percent of the ADP funding is expected to come from foreign aid.