IANS | 01 Jun, 2022
The
Union Cabinet has
given its approval for expanding the mandate of GeM to allow procurement
by Cooperatives as buyers on GeM
The
Government e Marketplace (GeM) was launched on August 9, 2016 by the
Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India to create an open
and transparent procurement platform for Government buyers.
A Special
Purpose Vehicle (SPV) by the name of Government e- Marketplace (GeM SPV)
was set up as the National Public Procurement Portal on 17th May, 2017
in pursuance of the approval, of the Union Cabinet accorded on 12th
April, 2017.
At present, the platform is open for procurement by all
government buyers: central and state ministries, departments, public
sector enterprises, autonomous institutions, local bodies, etc. As per
existing mandate, GeM is not available for use by private sector buyers.
Suppliers (sellers) can be from across all segments: government or
private.
More
than 8.54 lakh registered cooperatives and their 27 Crore members would
be benefitted with this initiative. GeM portal is open for all the
buyers and sellers across the country.
GeM is already adequately developed as a one stop portal to facilitate
online procurement of common use Goods and Services. It is transparent,
efficient, has economy of scale and is speedy in procurement.
Cooperative Societies will now be allowed to procure goods and services
from GeM.
Allowing Cooperative Societies to register on GeM as Buyers would help
Cooperatives in getting competitive prices through an. open and,
transparent process,
The validated list of cooperatives to be onboarded on GeM - for pilot
as well as subsequent scale up - will be decided by Ministry of
Cooperation in consultation with GeM SPV. This will ensure that
technical capacity and logistics requirement of the GeM system are taken
into account while deciding the pace of on boarding of Cooperative as
buyers on GeM.
GeM will provide a dedicated onboarding process for cooperatives,
provide the technical infrastructure to support additional users on
existing portal, as well as provide assistance to cooperatives for
onboarding and transaction journeys, via available contact centers,
in-field training and other support services.
Ministry of Cooperation would issue necessary advisories to encourage
the Cooperative Societies to make use of the GeM platform for
procurement of goods and services in order to benefit from increased
transparency, efficiency and competitive prices.
To protect interests of the broader seller community on GeM and ensure
timely payments, the modalities of payment systems shall be decided by
GeM in consultation with the Ministry of Cooperation.
