Online auditing of dev project in the offing

The government is working on an e-auditing system that would enable evaluating the developmental works remotely, said officials.    

"It will be a e-GP-like [online government procurement] milestone. Once the system is launched, auditors would be able to assess the development projects from their residences," Mohammed Shoheler Rahman Chowdhury, director general of the Central Procurement Technical Unit, told a programme in Dhaka Tuesday.

Shoheler Rahman said launching of the e-auditing will be a continuation of the government's e- bidding and e-procurement – measures that have sent bidding and purchase for public works online.   

Electronic auditing, or e-auditing, is computer-assisted auditing that uses electronic records to complete part or all of an audit. This follows similar procedures as a traditional audit but using electronic means to remotely perform the audit. E-audit is also known as remote auditing.  

"Government procurement was not off even during the pandemic-led closure. The online procurement saved time, money and efforts of the public agencies," he told a meeting of the Public-Private Stakeholders Committee (PPSC).    

As the chief guest of the programme, Planning Minister MA Mannan urged the officials to engage the field level executive engineers more to development projects.

"In many cases, the engineers are not working as much as they are supposed to do," the minister commented. "As a citizen of the country, I would say the LGED [Local Government Engineering Department] has not been able to use the district level executive engineers. They don't seem to be working the way they should."

Referring to the e-GP system, he said the government is working to ensure transparency and accountability. "People are being tasked to oversee the projects. Project quality should be better if the people are engaged in the works that are being implemented for them."  

As the special guest of the programme, State Minister for Planning Shamsul Alam said, "Many people criticise the government from outside that public works lack transparency. But after assuming office, I saw how much effort the government was making to ensure transparency and accountability."

Planning Secretary Pradip Ranjan Chakraborty said people are now being involved in smaller projects. Similarly, they can be involved in large projects in the future in phases.

Shoheler Rahman said increased public participation in development projects helps ensure transparency and accountability.

He said the government has floated tenders worth more than Tk5.42 lakh crore online, while tenders worth Tk3.76 lakh crore have been awarded so far. The e-tenders have saved the government around Tk1,600 crore.