Strengthening Institutions for Transparency and Accountability (SITA)

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The proposed public sector IPF will complement the governance reforms supported through the Strengthening Governance and Institutional Resilience (SGIR) DPC. The project will provide technical and financial support to five critical agencies (namely Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS); National Board of Revenue (NBR); The Planning Division (PD) under the Ministry of Planning; Bangladesh Public Procurement Authority (BPPA), and Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (OCAG)) to implement and institutionalize the urgent transparency and accountability reforms undertaken by the Interim Government within its mandate with a focus on digitization. Strengthening the capacity of these institutions will be critical for the Interim and future governments to successfully implement their governance agenda and improve public service delivery. The project has three ‘buckets’ of intervention (data, revenue, and expenditure as illustrated in the Theory of Change) with clear line of sight to the policy actions supported through the SGIR DPC, and is organized into two components plus three subcomponent under the expenditure "bucket": Component 1: Statistical Capacity Enhancement and Modernization (SCEM) for Evidence-based Policy and Public Investments (US$ 82 million)This component, to be implemented by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), complements the transparency reform supported by the standalone DPC through the adoption of digital data systems for statistical capacity enhancement and modernization. It will strengthen the capacity of the BBS to support evidence-based policy making and improved service delivery through investments in: (i) modernizing physical and statistical infrastructure , including data management and ICT systems, to inform core macroeconomic, fiscal, and social protection policy functions; (ii) improving the transparency and timeliness of data production to ensure its availability for public and private sectors, civil society, and citizens; and (iii) building public sector capacity to utilize statistical, administrative and big data to support citizen-centric service delivery.Component 2: Domestic Revenue Mobilization for Sustainable Public Sector Financing (US$ 82 million)This component, to be implemented by the National Board of Revenue (NBR), will finance the design and implementation of relevant business processes, digitalization and interoperability of tax systems, and capacity building. We will support i) Income tax administration -end-to-end automation of simplified business process; ii) VAT administration – development of SAP Competency Center, complete the development of the Integrated VAT Administration System (IVAS) IT system and the integration of IVAS with SAP and ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning Software iii) Interoperability among NBR systems (Asycuda World, IVAS and income tax) and with iBAS++, other key data systems, and iv) Establishment of an automated Taxpayer Call Center Expenditure efficiency and transparency for accountable and improved service delivery (Expenditure "bucket"; US$ 86 million)The expenditure "bucket" comprises three subcomponents that will support: public investment planning and implementation (subcomponent 3.1; US$25 million to be implemented by the Planning Division within the Ministry of Planning); procurement modernization to improve service delivery (subcomponent 3.2; US$ 36 million to be implemented by the Bangladesh Public Procurement Authority (BPPA)); and strengthening public audit through digital transformation and capacity enhancement (subcomponent 3.3; US$ 25 million to be implemented by the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (OCAG)). It will support improving capacity for managing investment projects by capacity building and leveraging IT systems and data analytics for efficiency and evidence-based decisions. It will upgrade the e-GP system for public procurement, modernize public procurement practices, and strengthen the public audit functions including through building IT infrastructure and digitization. For simplicity, the three subcomponents are included in the Result Framework as components instead of subcomponents.To streamline and simplify the implementation of the SITA Project, an agile oversight and coordination institutional arrangement will be put in place. The Economic Relations Division (ERD) will appoint a focal point who will be part of the Steering Committee of each of the five IAs (BBS, NBR, Planning Division, BPPA, and OCAG), while the day-to-day management of the project’s activities will be led by the PIUs at the IA level. The project coordination component (allocation included above in the five components) will support day-to-day administration, management, monitoring, and coordination of project activities by the PIUs, including financial management (FM), environmental and social risk management, procurement, audits, and monitoring, evaluation, and reporting.