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Update on 6th jun'11 ****
Seeing a sudden rush of visitor from India. see
this and
that. Probably they have noticed it. and seems under pressure from CPTU. I also contacted DG, CPTU, proposing to have admin access so that more glitches can be traced out..BUT he declined.... However, if you see some/ all of the below mentioned issues no longer exists, don't be surprised and take the original post as a hoax..
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Bangladesh Govt has nearly completed preparation for launching electronic bidding/ procurement platform (e-GP) for governmental agencies. It’s indeed a good news for all. Now they have given access to a staging site (
www.staging.eprocure.gov.bd) to test common functionality of the site. I have tried and got a test access in the site. Also browsed the site for having a basic understanding of the system working. Here I’ll post issues, glitches, bugs, user experiences as per my understanding as well as common concern. The list below will be gradually updated---
- Browser support: as a tech savvy person I use Mozilla FireFox 4.01. So whenever I tried to log into the system, it shows a message of incompatible browser --
This is a frustrating user experience. Hundreds of bidder will use this platform/ web site for e-bidding BUT it’s putting very age old browser compatibility constraint to the general non-technical bidders. If a e-Governance site is not user friendly, how calm users will be interested to use it? So it will be wise to remove such type of constraint before going live!! Hope concerned authority will look into it.
- email address validation: This is one of the silly issue i have never found anywhere. During registration, it first asks for a valid mail address, if i put '-' anywhere after @ char, it tells to enter a valid mail address. see below-
when i tried by removing '-' character, it certified that mail address is valid!!! what a poor validation rule used in such an e-government site. I haven't tried by using other special chars, may be more bugs will come!!
- Session expired issue: No matter how fast you type the e-GP URL and log into the system with credentials, it will show "session expired message" (for the first time only!!) -
This is another hilarious thing!! definitely, general bidders won't be happy with this special feature (??)
- Supported file types: although govt is focusing on open source based products/solutions, e-GP portal won't support files from open office or google docs format. see below for list of supported file extensions --
Even proprietary products from Microsoft, Google, oracle, IBM support managing heterogeneous file types and even interoperability to some extent. this is indeed a bad news for linux users...
- Max file size: it clearly mentions that size of a file must be no bigger than 2 MB. Hilarious!! I composed some tender doc for some UN agency, size of the document was 8 MB.
For large govt tenders, huge number of documents need to be composed and hence 2 MB max size seems ridicule! If they have so problem regarding the file server, they could take help from public file server sites, such as rapidshare, megaupload and so on
- logout issue: It's not a regular behavior, but it happens -- after log in. if you remain idle for sometime, it won't let you to log out. see the below picture
See, i am logged in. If i click on 'Logout', it just refreshes the same page. If i click on 'My DashBoard' , it show session expired page -
Now if you click on the, 'Go to log in page' link, you will be directed to the earlier page with Dashboard and log out link. Huh!! digital e-procurement in action!!!
- e-payment issue: although Govt boasts to use e-payment for e-GP portal, it's certainly not the same. See the following pic, you need to pay at least 1 day before tender submission deadline
It is because tenderer need to go physically to the bank for paying money!! is this really e-payment means? I am not here to provide solution, but as a citizen i think everyone will expect the actual meaning of e-payment in place. Otherwise people will use meaning of digital Bangladesh also negatively!
- SECURITY BREACH : This is by far the grave breach in this system. After logging into as a tenderer/individual consultant, you can view the PE (Procuring Entity) user lists and even will find 'edit' link to change their profile info also! See the following pic, i have logged into as tenderer/individual consultant which is evident by the items of top menu bar.
By exploiting some URL dynamics, see the PE user details are shown at the middle of the page. Also edit link is there to change their profile info...See the name of CPTU DG and Secretary of IMED is also visible there!! Now I will strongly say that the site didn't undergo rigorous testing phase most undoubtedly!!
- Create New Govt user : Being logged into the system as tenderer, you are able to create govt users also..of course you need some intelligence. See the pic below I am creating a new user --SBuser for 'Security Breach user'
Yes!! it's done -- see below my SBuser with other authorized user list of CPTU. So this kind of vulnerable system may create controversy of govt claim to eradicate 'tenderbazee' by e-GP portal
- Content approval without content admin : if you wish, you can approve your own content (how??), although approval responsibility goes to content admin. yes, this is a funny bug which remain untraceable by the indian chaps. see the pic below, i am commenting & approving while logged in as a tenderer.
also, another pic below shows that within 7 minutes it was being approved!!! so you are free to publish as much you like!!
- Tenderer approval bypassing content admin: Say you are a registered tenderer. Ok, now you can by pass content admin and approve new tenderer/s by your own credentials!! Huh, is it called 'Shuvonkorer faki'?? If it's there how can govt claim to protect fraudulent practices related to tendering. See the pic bleow, a tenderer with pending approval
Now I am logged into as a tenderer and approving this pending one.--
it's done successfully and he is included in the approved list-
Was there any testing phase in this project? seems lots of money spent is going to worthless..may be because fund was given by 'Gouri shen'
- Screen rendering issue: yes, after a break of few days.. i was using a certified browser(!!) of CPTU. But see one of the screen rendering issue, the circled table went far right than it should be -
now i'll tell if this kind of issues exist, no need of certified browsers!!! wait, i'll give some more screenshots.
