Page 109 - Procurement guidelines for smart sustainable cities - A U4SSC deliverable

dynamic pricing based on market conditions, consistent and uniform purchase procedures and a
dashboard for the selling and monitoring of supplies and payments.

For the buyers, it provided a listing of products for individual categories of Goods/Services, facility
to search, compare, select and buy, buying goods and services online, continuous vendor rating
system, useful for low-value buying and also for bulk buying at competitive price using reverse
auction/e-bidding, user-friendly dashboard for buying and monitoring supplies and payments
and an easy return policy.

The Government e Marketplace Special Purpose Vehicle (GeM SPV), a Section 8 (Non-Profit) Private
Limited Company under the Ministry of Commerce has been incorporated under the Companies
Act, 2013 to develop, manage and maintain the GeM platform.

The results

A major transformation has taken place in the last few years in the way procurement is made in the
government by setting up GeM. This allows procurement to take place in a completely paperless,
cashless and system driven e-market with minimal human interface. The platform helps in not only
making public procurement efficient and accountable but also enhances resource efficiency.

GeM eliminates human interface in vendor registration, order placement and payment processing,
to a great extent. Being an open platform, GeM offers no entry barriers to bona fide suppliers who
wish to do business with the government. At every step, SMS and e-mail notifications are sent to
the buyers, the heads of their organizations, paying authorities, and the sellers. Online, cashless
and time-bound payment on GeM is facilitated through integration with PFMS and State Bank Multi
Option System (SBMOPS). Seamless processes and online time-bound payment, which is also
mandated by the Department of Expenditure, has given confidence to the vendors and reduced
their “administrative” cost involved in pursuing officers for timely payment.

Direct purchasing on GeM can be done in a matter of minutes and the entire process in online,
end-to-end integrated and with online tools for assessing price reasonability. For procurements
of higher value, the bidding/Reverse Auction (RA) facility on GeM is among the most transparent
and efficient, in comparison to e-procurement systems in vogue within the government sector. For
creating a bid/RA, buyers do not need to create their own technical specifications as they have
been standardized on GeM. The bid/RA is notified via e-mail and SMS to all the eligible suppliers.
GeM bidding/RA therefore ensures competition, fair play, speed & efficiency and leads to proper
price discovery. The reasonableness of the rates can also be confirmed through online comparison
with market price on leading e-Commerce portals.

GeM is a completely secure platform and all the documents on GeM are e-Signed at various stages
by the buyers and sellers. The antecedents of the suppliers are verified online and automatically
through MCA21, Aadhar and PAN databases. In addition, SEBI empanelled credit rating agencies
are also being used for conducting third-party assessment of suppliers.

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