Bangladesh News

The Election Commission (EC) Secretariat yesterday decided to request the cabinet purchase committee to exempt it from the public procurement regulations (PPR) 2003 to enable it to complete printing of the updated voter list by October.
It took the decision at an inter-ministerial meeting that discussed possible complexities arising out of compliance with the PPR.

Sources said the EC Secretariat is going to make such a request mainly due to time constraint caused by the loss of over six months in preparing a controversial fresh voter list. Now, it is not possible to complete printing of the updated voter list this year if the PPR is to be complied with while the parliamentary election is scheduled to be held by January next year, the sources pointed out.

“We will request the cabinet purchase committee to exempt us from the provisions of the PPR so that we can give work orders for printing the updated voter list soon after completing the ongoing task of updating the list,” EC Secretary Abdur Rashid Sarkar told The Daily Star yesterday.

The PPR makes it mandatory to follow the process prescribed in it for giving any work order involving Tk 1 crore or more.

Sources at the EC Secretariat said it will have to spend over Tk 15 crore to complete printing of the updated voter list.

“We want to complete the task by October. But if we follow the PPR, we cannot complete it this year since we will not at least two months to give work orders for the job,” a senior EC official said.

The PPR is applicable to all public procurements by ministries, divisions, departments and various government agencies under them, local government bodies, public corporations and other public bodies. Any exception to this is allowed when the government decides that it is needed in the interest of national security or national defence or because of any emergency.

The PPR seeks to ensure transparency in public procurements.

Yesterday’s meeting held at the EC Secretariat was attended by officials of different ministries, including those of the central procurement technical unit (CPTU) under the planning ministry.

The EC Secretariat also decided to update the existing database of the voter list. Names of new voters will be included in the existing database prepared in 2000. Besides, the names to be deleted from the existing voter list will be dropped from the database, EC officials said.