GeM aims to enhance transparency, efficiency and speed in public procurement. It provides online resources and tools for e-bidding, reverse e-auction and demand-aggregation to facilitate government users and achieve the best value for their money.
The Ministry of Commerce and Industry released a press statement that said that the Government e-Marketplace (GeM), the national public procurement portal has been active for two years.
According to their website, the GeM intends to enhance transparency, efficiency and speed in public procurement. It provides online resources and tools for e-bidding, reverse e-auction and demand aggregation to facilitate the government users and to achieve the best value for their money.
The Government decided that the GeM Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) will create a one-stop Government e-Marketplace to facilitate the online procurement of common use goods and services required by government departments, organisations and Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs).
The press release said that the initiative was first launched in August 2016, with the objective to create an open, transparent and efficient procurement platform for the government.
Over the last two years, the GeM grossed over US $14.6 billion in Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) through more than around 61 million transactions on the platform.
The GeM made over 420,000 products available on its platform through a network of over 130,000 sellers and service providers.
These products and services are being bought by over 25,000 government organisations, including central or state governments and PSUs, registered on the platform.
More than 40% of transactions are done with Micro Small Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) that are registered on the platform.
Buyers from across 36 states and Union Territories (UTs) carry out transactions on the platform. 24 states and UTs have signed Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with the initiative to adopt the GeM as the core procurement portal in their respective territories.
The statement also said that over 40,000 buyers and sellers- across 28 states and UTs- are being trained to efficiently operate the platform.
The GeM has inked MoUs with the MSME Ministry, the Common Service Centre (CSC) initiative and several industrial associations (Confederation of Indian Industry-CII, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry-FICCI, among others) to facilitate training, capacity building and integrate manufactures and vendors from across the country.
The platform includes features like catalogue management with defined data types for a standardised seller and buyer experience. It has an improved, powerful search engine with advanced filters and functionalities to discover and aid procurement policy related guidelines.
The platform also offers multisource, real-time price comparison to give the user more information to make informed decisions. It has a multi-cart functionality and market-based bunching of products for time-efficient buying.
It provides advanced analytics to improve the availability of rich, automated data. The platform can be viewed in different languages to make it more universally accessible.
It groups products together to enable buyers to make easy and seamless procurements. The State Government Pool Account (SGPA) is opened and operationalised by Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. These pool accounts allow states to make advance payments for their purchases. They cannot debit, which reduces the chances of a lack of funds.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Samaya Dharmaraj
Quelle/Source: OpenGov Asia, 09.08.2018
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