Parliament on Thursday approved the Public Procurement (Amendment) Bill, 2026, as the government moves to modernise the country’s public purchasing system.
Finance Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury placed the bill in the House, which was passed by voice vote.
The legislation overhauls the nearly two-decade-old Public Procurement Act to align Bangladesh with international best practices. The focus now includes sustainability, ethics, transparency, efficiency, and “Value for Money.”
The bill formalises the Public Procurement (Amendment) Ordinance, 2025, previously promulgated during the interim government led by Prof Muhammad Yunus.
For the first time, the law introduces Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP). Government agencies must consider environmental protection, social progress, and economic development when acquiring goods or services. Section 16 bars tender clauses that harm the environment or violate workers’ rights, including fair wages, social benefits, and the prohibition of child labour.
Technological innovations are a key feature. Reverse auctioning, a real-time electronic bidding process, allows suppliers to compete by gradually lowering prices, expected to cut costs for standardised goods. The bill also mandates the use of the Electronic Government Procurement (e-GP) portal for all public purchases, with exceptions requiring prior approval from the Bangladesh Public Procurement Authority (BPPA).
Structural reforms include the formal recognition of BPPA as the main regulatory body and categorisation of “physical services” as a separate procurement type. The bill also expands Framework Agreements, allowing multiple agencies to procure commonly used items from pre-selected suppliers over a set period.
The legislation addresses international operations. Bangladeshi embassies and missions abroad may follow local procurement laws or international standards, subject to Cabinet Committee approval. For IT services funded by the government, foreign tenders must include a local consultancy firm as a joint venture partner.
Khosru said “The original Public Procurement Act, 2006, was enacted to ensure fairness, accountability, timeliness, and free competition in government procurement. The act has been amended five times until 2016.”
He noted “Amendments were necessary to improve efficiency, ethics, and quality, and to ensure best value for money. The fifth amendment’s price capping reduced competition, prompting the need for further reform. The new bill introduces procurement strategies, SPP, asset disposal provisions, reverse auctioning, and recognition of infrastructural services as a separate procurement type.”
The Public Procurement (Amendment) Ordinance, 2025, was issued by the President on May 4, 2025, and implemented through a gazette notification on 28 September, 2025. The new bill now codifies these reforms into law.
