The Jatiya Sangsad on Thursday passed the 'Public Procurement (Amendment) Bill, 2026', marking a significant overhaul of the nation’s two-decade-old purchasing framework to align with international standards.

Finance Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury moved the bill in the House, which was passed by voice vote, effectively formalizing the Public Procurement (Amendment) Ordinance, 2025, previously promulgated during the interim government.

The legislation shifts the law's fundamental focus from a singular emphasis on "transparency and accountability" to a comprehensive mandate prioritizing efficiency, ethics, quality, and sustainable procurement.

A landmark inclusion is the concept of Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP), which under the new Section 16, prohibits the government from including any tender terms that negatively impact the environment or violate workers' rights, specifically addressing wages, social benefits, and child labor.

The bill introduces technological advancements like "reverse auctioning"—a real-time electronic bidding process to drive down costs— and mandates the use of the Electronic Government Procurement (e-GP) portal for all public transactions, barring specific exceptions approved by the Bangladesh Public Procurement Authority (BPPA).

Structurally, the BPPA is now recognized as the primary regulatory body, and "physical services" have been categorized as a distinct procurement type.

The law also expands Framework Agreements for multi-agency purchasing and allows Bangladeshi missions abroad to follow host-country laws with prior approval from the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs.

To bolster the domestic industry, the bill stipulates that for government-funded IT services, international tenders must include a local consultancy firm as a joint venture partner.

Regarding the bill's objectives, Finance Minister Khosru said, "To ensure the legal framework for ensuring fairness, accountability, timeliness and free competition in government procurement management, the government formulated the Public Procurement Act, 2006 (PPA 2006) on 6 July 2006."

He further noted that "as the issue of ensuring efficiency, ethics and quality in government procurement and the best value for money (Value for Money) has been considered relevant and necessary in recent times, the need for inclusion of government procurement in the legal framework was felt."

The Minister explained that amendments were necessary to address the "imposition of price capping in internal procurement in the fifth amendment made to the act in 2006, which significantly reduced the level of competition in government procurement."

Consequently, the act now integrates international best practices, including procurement strategies, asset disposal, and the "consideration of 'infrastructural service’ as a separate type of procurement."

This legislative update follows the implementation of the Presidential ordinance which had been in effect via gazette notification since September 28, 2025.