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Patna: Deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi on Monday spoke about widening the scope of Government-e-Marketplace (GeM) with doors of online platforms being opened to common people too.
GeM is an online market platform to facilitate procurement of goods and services by various ministries and government, sellers being from big multinational companies, small industrial units or the local cottage industry.
"The GeM body should look at ways to widen the scope for online trade platforms," deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi said, while attending a function at the main secretariat. "The GeM should not be limited to government agencies' power to purchase goods and services. Even the public should be allowed to purchase goods and services on the pattern on online platforms such as Amazon, Flipkart and others."
Through the online market, the Bihar government has procured goods worth around Rs 47 crore in the past year and various departments have already placed their tenders for procurement of goods.
"As the procurement through online market brings more transparency it will help check corruption in procurement of goods and services by government agencies," Modi said.
Principal secretary, finance, Sujata Chaturvedi, additional CEO of GeM Suresh Kumar and secretary (expenditure) Rahul Singh were present on the occasion along with representatives from different government agencies and trade bodies.
Additional CEO GeM, Suresh Kumar, highlighted various tools of GeM.
"Through GeM, there are several benefits such as transparency in government procurement as it will eliminate human interface in vendor registration, order placement and placement processing," Suresh said.
On the occasion, IG (provisions) K.K. Singh shared his experience as a buyer. "Through GeM we bought SUVs and saved around Rs 75,000 per vehicle through online transaction. Through GeM, the transactions were not only cost-effective but even delivery was made on time."
"With the launch of online trade platform, we don't have to depend upon government tendering process as all the government procurement policies is transparent," Navin Gupta, the director of Krishna Agencies Pvt Ltd, said. "However, local units or companies should get preference in such online trade platforms."