Public procurement and corruption in Bangladesh confronting the challenges and opportunities

Abstract

In new democracies like Bangladesh code of conduct, the ethics and issues of conflict of interest have not been accorded a high priority for legislative and administrative reforms. To discuss the role of public administration in Bangladesh and recommends measures to be adopted to prevent corruption in public procurement. Information on global and regional in connection to procurement and corruption were retrieved from documents available mainly on electronic databases, literature survey, on websites of specialized agencies and analysis of the existing situation in Bangladesh held. In Bangladesh contract awards provide opportunities for procurement. There are reports of wide-ranging corruption, political control and pressure from trade unions in the procurement process. Public trust in the process is generally absent. The World Banks evaluation of Bangladesh concluded that the implementation of procurement process is far from satisfactory, due to the following problems, poor advertisement, short bidding periods, poor specifications, nondisclosure of selection criteria, contract awards by lottery, one-sided contract documents, negotiations with all bidders and rebidding without adequate grounds, occurrence of corruption involving donor agency are not uncommon at nationally or globally and or other levels. The interesting finding is that procurement happens to be one of the lucrative areas, where corruption of above nature, therefore, the quality of public administration must be improved and accountable, which is an integral part of good governance. Key words: Procurement, corruption, e-procurement, public policy and administration,