Dimapur, Sep. 21 (EMN): The state mission on Government e-Marketplace (GeM) was formally launched by the chief secretary, Benchilo Thong at the Secretariat’s conference hall on Kohima on Friday.
According to a DIPR report, Thong informed that the workshop was part of the nationwide drive from September 6 to October 17. The GeM, he said, was an e- commerce portal hosted by the Directorate General of Supplies and Disposals.
“Thong appraised (sic) that the GeM portal is rapidly increasing its business since its inception with transacted business totalling to INR 11,875.80 cr. As on date (sic), the GeM portal shows that 1,42,194 sellers and service providers are registered on the portal.
“He maintained that the workshop intends to create awareness about GeM, its benefits, and to bring onboard sellers as well as buyers in order to avail the benefits of buying from a portal. For the government departments, GeM provides a huge advantage of offering a wide range of products and services along with the benefits of a transparent and easy procurement process,” the report read.
He requested all the administrative heads and heads of departments to ‘actively consider maximum utilisation of the benefits offered by the portal so that the value of the funds placed at their disposal is multiplied.’
According to the additional chief secretary and finance commissioner, Temjen Toy, GeM is basically a procurement programme where the entire transaction is paperless; and in the present system where the departments have to issue tenders take time, the issue of transparency also comes in.
He stated that GeM will do away with bureaucracy of procurement and simplify and speed up the process of procurement. “He also said it was made mandatory that procurement for ‘PoshanMaa’ (sic) programme in the state has to be done through GeM, ‘by and by the government of India is going to insist that you should procure materials from GeM portal, so it is only in our interest that we get onboard as soon as possible so that we are not left behind. The state government will be issuing the orders to gradually incorporate it.’”
Envisaged by the government of India, GeM strives to keep pace with the ever-evolving technological challenges and stakeholder aspirations, the report stated. “The GeM portal is currently used by almost all departments/organisations of the central government. Organisations from 23 states / UTs are already using GeM.
“Government has made procurement of products and services available on GeM mandatory to all the central government ministries, departments and central government organisations. The General Financial Rules were amended in March 2017 and Rule 149 introduced in this regard,” it informed.
