The commerce ministry is implementing pilot projects in Kerala, Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh under the MMP (Mission Mode Project) of National e-governance programme to evolve a replicable nation-wide e-procurement system.
The ministry is using its procurement arm-DGS&D(director-general of supply and disposal) in the process. Around 20 % of a country?s GDP is spent on purchase of goods and services by its government worldwide.
The proposed model is envisaged to be uniform to all states in the country as Indian government spends around Rs 3.75 lakh crore a year on procurement of various goods and services.
Speaking to FE, K Bikshapathi, general manager, project development and management, National Institute of Smart Government(NISG) said the request for proposal (RFP) bids for Kerala under the pilot project will be released by middle of February and post implementation would showcase the integrated end-to-end transparent e-procurement model that could be either be replicated by other states as the benchmark model or become a single nationwide e-procurement platform system.
Listing out the lacunaes encountered in the present system of e-procurement, he said that every state has its own system making it difficult for a national-level contractor or vendor in tendering and clinching business deals when dealing with different states.
There is no coherence and transparency. Tamil Nadu has its own state-level transparent Act on procurement and Karnataka has a seperate Act. Ironically, there is no national-level law or authority on procurement. Also, there is no national portal on procurement for government agencies to compare and contrast the contract rates before finalising the tender bids.