Dhaka, Nov 12 (bdnews24.com) – The government will not change its newly amended PPA but will follow World Bank guidelines on procurements as far as Bank-funded projects go, finance minister AMA Muhith said Thursday.

He said the seeming dispute between the government and lending agency over public procurement rules was "not such a serious issue".

The recent amendments to the Public Procurement Act were made after discussions with the World Bank and other donors, Muhith said.

His comments come in the wake of a number of media headlines saying the World Bank, objecting to the new PPA, had asked the government to "suspend all WB-funded projects".

The Bank, however, stressed on Thursday that a letter sent to the government earlier in the week had requested a temporary hold only on "local procurements under the new PPA", in Bank-financed projects.

Muhith, speaking to reporters after a meeting with new WB country director Ellen Goldstein at his office Thursday, said, "We've done what we felt was good for us (in amending the PPA)."

He said, "The World Bank had earlier been in accord with our public procurement rules, while now they're sticking to their own guidelines after our amendment of the PPA."

The Bank would not bend its own guidelines for funding projects in Bangladesh, Goldstein told reporters.

Muhith said, "It's not that serious an issue."

"As far as World Bank funded projects go, we have to follow their guidelines while receiving their donations."

This mirrored World Bank's written statement issued Thursday.

"GoB may continue its local procurement under the World Bank financed projects so long as [the specified] provisions of the PPA amendment are not used," it said.

The Bank highlighted four specific provisions in the new PPA to which it objected—lottery system, no qualification/experience requirements, rejection of bids with price above or below 5 percent of estimate, and single stage two-envelope system for procurement of goods and works.

"The four specific provisions are not consistent with some fundamental provisions of the World Bank's Procurement Guidelines regarding economy, efficiency, transparency, and fairness," said the statement.

The Bank stressed, however, that it had not asked the government to suspend all procurement under World Bank financed projects, as was reported by some media outlets this week.

The Bank said it had sent the letter in order to work "with the government to revise existing project financing agreements between the GoB and the World Bank".

These revisions concern "local procurements only", the Bank underlined in its statement.

"Large infrastructure projects requiring International Competitive Bidding will not be affected," it said.

Parliament passed the amendment to public procurement law on Nov 4.

The revised law saw amendments to seven sections of the Public Procurement Act 2006.

Among these, the law now allows individuals/firms with no prior experience to compete in tenders for public works or for purchase of goods/services worth up to Tk 2 crore.

Work orders of up to Tk 2 crore will also be awarded through lottery without any insistence on pre-qualification.

Many fear the amendments would allow ruling party adherents to allow those with no qualification or experience to compete in tenders.

The World Bank and other lenders have also objected to the amendments, fearing that the quality of public works might fall due to the new provisions.

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