Centre Eyes 100 Per Cent Procurement Through Govt E-Marketplace By End Of FY23

Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Central government has set a target of 100 per cent procurement through GeM (Government e-Marketplace) by the end of current financial year, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Friday (22 July).

Chairing a review meeting of GeM, Goyal lauded the efforts being made by various buyer organisations in increasing their procurements through GeM.

The GeM, launched in August 2016, is a one stop portal to facilitate online procurement of common use Goods & Services required by various government ministries and departments, Public Sector Undertakings and other apex autonomous bodies of the Central Government.

Buyers from over 50 central government ministries and 50 central PSUs were invited in the meeting for getting a firsthand feedback.

According to a Commerce Ministry release, Goyal emphasised that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set a "target of 75 per cent procurement to be made through GeM by 15th of August and 100 per cent procurement to be made through GeM by the end of the current financial year".

The minister said that there was a need to keep a strict vigil on GeM procurement data and identify any deviant behaviours using Advanced Analytics and AI/ML based tools so that immediate and strict action could be taken against any such deviant behaviours.

Goyal emphasized on the need to change in the perception that public procurement is a source of corruption. He said that GeM has brought about a sea change in the way public procurement is perceived by public at large.

The minister expressed the hope that GeM will continue its engagement with all stakeholders and going forward will also focus on ease of doing procurement.

The minister said that aggregation of demand because of procurement happening through a single portal will help in reducing the cost of procurement also for Govt. Buyers.

With collective wisdom and collective efforts of all stakeholders, GeM can well become the largest marketplace for public procurement in the world, he added.

During the review meeting, Buyers were briefed about the new features and functionalities deployed on GeM in last one year and also about planned developments in near future.

The GeM portal has about 61,440 government buyer organisations and about 47.99 lakh sellers and service providers with a listing of over 41.44 lakh product offerings and 1.9 lakh service offerings, according to the Commerce Ministry.

All states (except Sikkim) have already signed MoUs with GeM, the ministry said.

The ministry added that as many as 239 CPSUs are also registered on GeM and making significant procurement through GeM portal.