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E-marketplace would be a game changer in public procurement and would give a boost to 'Make in India' by removing entry barriers for doing business with the government, Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia said on Monday.
The government e-marketplace (GeM) was developed by Directorate General of Supplies and Disposals (DGS&D), which is under the Commerce Ministry.
Teaotia also said owing to the transparency, ease, efficiency and time-bound payment offered by GeM, it is the way forward and would very soon become the standard mode of procurement by government agencies.
"GeM would be a game changer in public procurement and would give an impetus to 'Make in India' by removing the entry barriers for doing business with the government," the ministry said in a statement quoting Teaotia.
She said that although it has been made mandatory on GeM to make payment to the vendors within 10 days of receipt of goods/services, efforts should be made to further reduce this time span as time is money and ultimately the cost of delayed payment is born by the government.
The online platform will enable government department buyers to bypass the cumbersome tendering system and instead procure using a system that offers ease of operation similar to e-commerce sites.
She said this while inaugurating a one-day hands on training workshop on GeM for vendors.
The training programme has been jointly organised by DGS&D, National Institute of Financial Management (NIFM), National e -Governance Division (NeGD), CII and FICCI.
It was attended by more than 200 suppliers from sectors such as Information Technology, Electrical goods, transport services.
Binoy Kumar, DG(S&D), in his address said GeM is a completely online and end-to-end integrated e-procurement portal for products and services, and has been designed keeping in mind the need for ease of doing business as well as transparency and efficiency.
"More training sessions are planned for both government buyers as well as sellers in the coming days and the details of scheduled training programs shall be available on the GeM portal," Kumar said.
