Census stuck in tender trap

The Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase yesterday returned a tender from the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) to buy 3.95 lakh computer tablets for conducting the country's sixth population census, citing a lack of details in the proposal.

This is the second time that the BBS has been asked to resend its proposal and as such, the population census, which was supposed to be conducted in January this year, has been delayed again.

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During a virtual cabinet meeting on Monday, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal asked the concerned ministry to resubmit the proposal within the next 10 days.

 "We are trying to verify each piece of information to avoid any mistakes and that is why the process is taking so long," he said.

In response to a query, Kamal said two local companies had participated in bidding for the tender.

"We want to use the equipment made in Bangladesh and thereby give opportunities to local companies," he added.

Earlier, the BBS had retendered its proposal to buy the computer tabs just days after the cabinet had rejected its initial tender on August 25 for not following due procedure.

The first tender was floated on June 23, and the technical evaluation committee of the BBS chose the second-lowest bidder after the lowest bidder was disqualified.

Eight companies had bought bidding documents but only two local companies, which manufacture and assemble electronic items, took part in the bidding process.

The second lowest bidder offered to supply the tablets for around Tk 10,000 per unit while the lowest bidder asked for Tk 6,000 per unit.

But at the eleventh hour on August 25, the cabinet committee returned the proposal, citing that due procedure was not followed in forwarding the proposal and asked the BBS to go for a retender.

It also questioned why the proposal was not submitted in two separate envelopes.

Usually, one of the envelopes contains a technical proposal while the other contains the financial proposal.

Although three years have passed since drawing up a master plan, the BBS is yet to conduct the population census almost a year after schedule.

The BBS had prepared a master plan in 2018 to carry out the census on January 2-8 this year and publish a preliminary report by July. In October 2019, the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) approved a Tk 1,761 crore project for the Population and Housing Census.

However, the BBS could not complete the census as per the schedule due to the coronavirus pandemic and in January 2021, it pushed back the survey date to October 25-31.

Earlier, the statistical agency brought some changes to its master plan as it decided to conduct the census digitally instead of manually, saying the move would help cut project costs by 11 per cent, or Tk 186 crore.

Accordingly, the cost was revised downwards to Tk 1,575 crore, which was passed by the Ecnec in June 2021.

The last census was conducted in 2011, when the country's population stood at 15.17 crore. The population grows at an average rate of 1.37 per cent per annum.