NEW DELHI: India’s public procurement portal Government e Marketplace (GeM) may also become a vehicle for the government to invite bids for work contracts. A proposal in this regard will be submitted to the commerce ministry following stakeholder consultations, chief executive officer of GeM P K Singh said on Thursday.
“The pie for work contracts is very large. We will target 10% of the works initially, show the benefits and then increase the mandate,” Singh said.
A work contract is issued to carry out construction, installation, erection repair, renovation, maintenance, alteration of any movable or immovable property. It can include works as simple as repairs to building schools, hospitals, highways and dams. Out of total public procurement globally, about 90% is via work contracts.
The GeM is expecting to complete the final round of consultation next week before fine-tuning and presenting its proposal to the ministry, which would place it before Cabinet for approval.
The consultation process so far has included likely buyers of the works contracts, construction agencies and others.
In 2023-24 goods and services worth Rs 4 trillion were procured using the GeM platform, which was double of what was done in the previous year. GeM, which is the second largest public procurement portal in the world, will be at the top by the end of this financial year, Singh said. The biggest public procurement portal in the world is Korea’s KONEPS. Singapore’s GeBIZ is at the third spot.
Every procurement system starts with the rate contract and then goes through goods and services before bringing in work contracts.GeM started in 2016 as a portal for procurement of goods by government departments and other entities and later services were also brought in.
In the April-June quarter of this financial year the procurement through GeM stands at Rs 1.24 trillion which is 2.4 times the procurement in the same period of last year.
On KONEPS 75% of total procurement of around $ 90 billion is work contracts while GeM will overtake it only with the goods and services.
GeM is also rolling out a programme to train persons who can handhold buyers and sellers for onboarding support, enhancing business opportunities and smooth navigation on the platform.
Under GeM Sahayak (helpers) 5000 persons will be trained by third parties. Request for Proposals for the programme will also be rolled out in 100 days.
GeM has over 1.5 lakh government buyers and over 62 lakh sellers and service providers offering a wide range of products and services. Currently, government departments, ministries, public sector units, state governments, and central armed police forces are allowed to carry out transactions through this portal.
The portal provides a wide range of products from office stationery to vehicles. Automobiles, computers and office furniture are some of the major product categories.
Services, including transportation, hiring of helicopter services, logistics, waste management, webcasting and analytical, are listed on the portal.
Source: The Financial Express
