GeM Investigates How To Add Works To The Portal
According to a senior source, the public procurement portal GeM has released an approach paper for stakeholder engagements as it looks into ways to bring works to the platform to expand its coverage.
The Government e-Marketplace (GeM) platform, was launched in 2016 for the online purchasing of products and services by all central government ministries and departments. Currently, only registered goods and service suppliers can buy products and services through this platform.
Construction projects include creating roads and structures, as well as establishing large plants and other facilities. There isn’t yet any way to purchase these works on the GeM platform. The GeM portal does not list large contractors who perform these services. Therefore, to investigate options for including these works on the platform, we have released an approach paper for stakeholder engagements, GeM CEO Talleen Kumar told PTI.
He claimed that by allowing the purchase of these works, the platform would become a national portal for many purchases by the states, the federal government, and other government organisations. GeM would approach the centre for further action after gathering opinions from all stakeholders, including the governments of the states and the federal government.
In a letter to all state and union territory chief secretaries and central government secretaries, Kumar stated that GeM’s current responsibility is to provide a platform for the purchase of goods and services for federal and state government organisations. However, the organisation is currently working to develop a national unified procurement system that will provide a single platform for the purchase of goods, services, and works.
The bid documents now are in use by the public works departments of five states, the Ministries of Defense and Railways, NTPC, IOCL, CPWD, NHAI, NHIDCL, and PGCIL have undergone a thorough study by GeM. The approach paper shares the results of the examination of 47 bid documents for works contracts that these organisations used in the recent past.
The purchasing entities (PEs) will create their unique bid documents by selecting from a library of standard bid document templates thanks to technology. GeM has asked ministries and departments that may be involved in the procurement of works for their opinions, feedback, and suggestions. They should be able to share their opinions by December 28 of this year. Since its beginning, GeM, according to Kumar, has caused a paradigm shift in the way PEs buy products and services.
It offers a national platform with over 7.5 lakh vendors and service providers, over 17 lakh products, and a transaction value of over Rs 71,900 crore. As a result, the MSME sector’s reach has increased while transaction times and costs for acquiring goods and services have decreased. He added that initially; the builder is suggested to be used just for works contracts utilising National Competitive Bidding (NCB) procedures, but we expect it to bring about improved economy, efficiency, and openness in the procurement of works.
“It should hold broad stakeholder engagements to complete the strategy for bringing works procurement on GeM. This approach paper took a start in that regard,” said the CEO. Since August 2019, over 1,490 software processes have been built or improved to provide a variety of features and functionalities for transparent, practical, and affordable purchases via the portal.












