Project procurement and supply chain challenges in public sector projects in developing countries face different types of challenges, which are specific to the type of project and the country’s approach to procurement [2,6,7]. Developing countries have distinct institutional environments in their natural, political, and/or social spheres; as a result, projects become more complex across dimensions, such as communication management, stakeholder management, and procurement management [8,9]. In addition, the faulty procurement process can significantly delay projects and increase project costs [7,10]. Accordingly, public sector projects, as well as international development projects in developing countries, are more complex in comparison to developed countries [8,11,12,13]. For instance, the procurement management of public sector projects in Bangladesh is confronted with significant challenges. It is reported that Bangladesh incurs a non-trivial economic loss due to its inefficient procurement and misappropriation of funds [7]. More specifically, public procurement is impacted by factors, such as a wide range of corruption, political control, and pressure from different types of trade unions [14]. Subsequently, project costs are often substantially increased. Historically, Bangladesh has focused on implementing public-sector development projects in agriculture. More recently, the government significantly increased its annual development program (ADP) budget for the agriculture sector in its seventh five-year plan [15]. Moreover, the government has taken a number of initiatives to improve its overall public sector procurement through one of the sustainable development goal (SDG) action plans, which includes the mid-term and long-term development plans to attain SDG 12.7: ‘Promote public procurement practices that are sustainable in accordance with national policies and priorities’ [16]. Furthermore, according to the Ministry of Agriculture [17], the country wants to improve the implementation capacity of the public sector agriculture projects, which in turn will help to attain SDG 2: ‘End hunger, achieve food security and improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture’.

Against this backdrop, it is considered urgent and relevant to research the identification of procurement and supply chain challenges of public-sector agriculture projects to deliver more successful public-sector agriculture projects. In the current context, these challenges are not well understood and there is limited research on procurement issues in developing countries, particularly in the Bangladesh setting. Thus, an effective and applicable research methodology will assist in identifying robust research and the best approach moving forward. The identification and categorization of procurement and supply chain challenges in other industry domains were investigated using Delphi and AHP methods [18,19,20]. However, given that developing countries have some unique characteristics compared to developed countries, it would be justified to thoroughly examine the pros and cons of the methodology before researchers choose one to conduct such research. Thus, the purpose of this article was to critically study the usefulness and application of the Delphi and/or AHP method in analyzing the challenges of procurement and supply chain management in public-sector agriculture projects in Bangladesh. This will enable researchers to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the methodology before they adapt it as the solution methodology. In addition, the study recommends a best-practice research framework using the Delphi–AHP method to identify and categorize the challenges.

The term “procurement” is applied in broad aspects and it is used to describe a number of entities (i.e., functions, organizations, processes, systems, and so on). According to [21], “procurement was once descriptive of the simple clerical activities associated with purchasing well-specified items, but it has evolved in some organizations to describe instead strategic partnering efforts made by senior executives”. He also argues that it is the central part of supply chain management since it integrates the processes and activities of suppliers, vendors, producers, customers, and organizations that are routinely required to shape enterprise strategy based on opportunities to form alliances, partnerships, and joint ventures with vendors. Similarly, Raymond (2008) recommends five key principles of procurement: value for money, ethics, competition, transparency, and accountability [22]. Additionally, Walker and Rowlinson [23] suggest some other issues (i.e., culture, leadership, management, environmental, economic, ethical, and political issues) that have an impact on procurement. Whereas, project procurement management is the process of obtaining products, services, or results that the project team needs from outside the project team [24] Additionally, project procurement can be examined from different “lenses”—functional, organizational, system, and process lenses [21]. A functional lens refers to and depicts specific job tasks (i.e., obtaining vendor quotations), a division of labor (i.e., buying items vs. making them), and worker skills (i.e., negotiation). Similarly, the organizational lens deals with specific departments or other organizational entities in the enterprise; managerial hierarchy; worker roles; organizational responsibilities; and so on. From a system lens view, it refers to a system, which is related to inputs (i.e., requirements, information), outputs (i.e., purchase orders, received vendor items), transfer functions (i.e., vendor management), and the environment (i.e., industry). In the case of the process lens concept, it describes a set of interlinked processes among the vendors, producers, and customers.

Handfield and Nichols [25] define a supply chain as “the supply chain encompasses all organizations and activities associated with the flow and transformation of goods from the raw materials stage, through to the end-user, as well as the associated information flows” [25]. According to Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (2019) “a supply chain involves a network of individuals, organizations, technology, activities and resources to make sure goods or services flow along the chain” [26]. Thus, all parts of the supply chain need to work together. The basic objective of the chain is to procure and supply something to the customer or end-user, thus the chain has two stages: upstream and downstream. The Council of Supply Chain Professionals (CSCMP) defines supply chain management as encompassing the planning and management of all activities involved in sourcing and procurement, conversion, and all logistics management activities. Importantly, it also includes coordination and collaboration with channel partners, which can be suppliers, intermediaries, third-party service providers, and customers. In essence, supply chain management integrates supply and demand management within and across companies [27].

On the other hand, project supply chain management is a collection of methods used to finish and deliver a product, service, or project in such a way that the system-wide costs are minimized while still surpassing or maintaining the customers’ service level expectations [2]. Basu and Wright [28] studied total supply chain management of the projects, and the study states that six components are for supply chain configuration (e.g., customer focus and demand management, resource and capacity management, procurement and supplier focus, inventory management, operations management, and distribution management), and three components are for supply chain integration (e.g., systems and procedures, sales and operations planning, and performance management). These building blocks will be applicable, to a varying degree, to all types and strategies of supply chains, whether they are primarily pulling or pushing processes, whether they are agile or lean supply chains, or whether they are in the manufacturing or service sector. As a result of the unique nature of the activities involved in each project’s supply chain, professionals in this field must constantly adapt their strategies in order to meet the ever-changing demands of supply chain management [2].

Being a developing country, Bangladesh faces several challenges in its public sector projects [29]. Consequently, the World Bank reports that Bangladesh is experiencing significant economic losses due to its inefficient procurement and misappropriation of funds [30]. Moreover, procurement delays lead to increased project costs [7]. Likewise, some other factors also affect public procurement in Bangladesh, such as extensive corruption, political control, and pressure from different types of trade unions. Therefore, procurement management should be more accountable to ensure good governance in public procurement [14]. Under the annual development program (ADP) of the country, all the public sector development projects are designed, implemented, monitored, and evaluated by the guidelines of the Ministry of Planning, the Planning commission, respective ministries, and implementing agencies [31]. Basically, the project fund comes from two sources: The Government of Bangladesh (GoB), and international development partners. Currently, the government is implementing 168 agriculture sector projects in FY 2020-21 with their specific budgets, targets, and durations. As per the project completion report (FY 2016-17), almost 80% of the projects went over budget and time due to some common issues, including: delayed start of the projects; delayed deployment of the key staff; improper procurement planning; delay in land acquisition; natural disaster, improper budgeting; wrong estimation and forecasting; improper supply chain management in some cases; and project revision [32]. Likewise, it is evident that public sector development projects might be affected by different categories of procurement and supply chain challenges [2,7,31].

In the context of sustainable development, project procurement and supply chain management practices are critical not only to improve the operation and overall supply chain efficiency but also to focus on environmental, economic, and social issues [1,2,28,33]. In particular, development projects are implemented for the sustainable development of a country. Project procurement and supply chain management are crucial not only for ensuing values within the project but also for project deliverables [2]. Thus, the project procurement and supply chain issues of the development projects are directly and indirectly correlated with the sustainable development of the socio-economic and environmental conditions.

There is a dearth of research on procurement and supply chain issues in public-sector agriculture projects in developing countries. Consequently, selecting an appropriate methodology is a crucial prerequisite. Because they have already been utilized to analyze challenges in other sectors of Bangladesh, Delphi and AHP are deemed useful for conducting studies of this nature. This study will investigate the methods and develop a research framework using secondary data to examine the challenges associated with public-sector agriculture projects in a developing country, such as Bangladesh.