Project Directors (PDs) of various projects under the Annual Development Programme (ADP) have been requested to provide and update all data of their projects in the electronic Project Management Information System (e-PMIS) of Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED).
The request was made at a dissemination workshop for stakeholders of e-PMIS software organized by Bangladesh Public Procurement Authority (BPPA), former Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU) of IMED, Ministry of Planning, at the NEC Auditorium in Dhaka on Monday.
The CPTU was transformed into BPPA last year with a view to improving procurement environment and enhancing professionalism in public procurement in
the country.
The workshop was held under Digitizing Implementation Monitoring and Public Procurement Project (DIMAPPP) which is now being implemented by BPPA. The World Bank supported the DIMAPPP since July 2017 to December 2023. The e-PMIS has been developed and operationalized under the DIMAPPP.
Representatives from a total of 50 ministries, divisions and agencies attended the workshop who interacted on various aspects and usage of e-PMIS in their respective entities.
Secretary, IMED, Mr. Abul Kashem Md Mohiuddin, was present as the Chief Guest in the workshop. Dr. Subhas Chandra Biswas, Additional Secretary, IMED, was present as the Special Guest, while Chief Executive Officer of BPPA, Mirza Ashfaqur Rahman, presided over it. Senior Procurement Specialist of the World Bank, Dhaka Office, Mr Arafat Ishtiaque was also present.
Ms. Afroza Parvin, Director (Deputy Secretary) of BPPA, made a detailed presentation on objectives, features, functions, benefits, integration with other government software and challenges of e-PMIS. While presenting, she also highlighted the status of project information provided by PDs of different projects to the online monitoring system.
The presentation showed the data update in the system was not at the expected level. All PDs were requested to give project data as soon as possible. There are a total of 1343 projects in the current fiscal and 1256 PDs have registered with e-PMIS. Of the 50 ministries, divisions and agencies invited in the workshop, 26 organizations' admins have been created in e-PMIS and the rest are yet to be done
The Secretary said, aiming to build a prosperous and discrimination-free country, the government is working to bring reforms in all fields, and for achieving that goal it is important to make reforms in the mindset of people and so reforms are needed in both the man and the machine as well.
Expecting that e-PMIS will enable the project directors oversee project implementation without hassles, he said, it is not possible PDs visit fields as they have to monitor multiple projects.
The e-PMIS software will gradually be integrated with other systems in a way so that data from other systems can automatically be uploaded on this which would make this system more workable, he expected. Presently, it has been integrated with NID, electronic Government Procurement (e-GP) and Project Processing, Appraisal, and Management System (PPS), while that with IBAS+ will be done soon.
Laying importance on formulating project evaluation policy he said the government will soon formulate complete project guideline as decided at a recent meeting of the Council of Advisers.
The Chief Executive Officer of BPPA said, since e-PMIS is a web-based software, it is possible to work through it from anywhere in the world. If all project information are uploaded on this platform, then it would build a national database and those can be accessed from the offices of PDs.
Dr Subhas said, project work is very completed and e-PMIS would make it useful for all stakeholders engaged in projects as it is very systematic and a very good platform.
The WB representative said, as a new system, e-PMIS has challenges and more use of this would make it more convenient and user-friendly.
Mentioning that the e-PMIS system is a modernized one, he said, its integration with other systems would help upload real-time data on the system and it would reduce redundancy of data entry by field-level officials. When data of one system is loaded to other platforms, it would reduce cost and time. This would ensure better project management, he mentioned.
