DEFENCE PROCUREMENT AND BUDGET: AN EVALUATION FROM THE BANGLADESH PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

While defence procurement is a subject of critical importance in any country, for a third world
country like ours, it assumes greater significance since our total defence budget is never sufficient,
especially in the face of other social and developmental priorities. Therefore, to maximize our meager
resources, a comprehensive system of defence procurement is essential to ensure quality equipment
and services for the defence forces, keeping in view the need for transparency and accountability. Now
the primary question is whether the defence procurement system in Bangladesh is able to fulfill the
requirements of the three services, in terms of fielding quality equipment for our services, by ensuring
optimum utilization of the available budget. In answering this question an effort has been made in
this research paper to carry out an objective analysis of the existing system of defence procurement
and suggest measures for optimum utilization of the defence budget. It is an outcome of both primary
and secondary research carried out by the author, where his experience as a staff officer of the Armed
Forces Division, essentially involved in the procurement process, has been extensively relied upon.
Through this research the author has tried to prove that the budget allotted for defence procurement
in Bangladesh is substantial, considering the country’s socio-economic condition. But for the optimum
utilization of the defence budget, particularly in the field of capital procurement, there is a need for
effective planning, policy and procedural reforms and organizational restructuring.