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.
New Delhi: Union Cabinet on Wednesday gave its approval for expanding the mandate of GeM to allow procurement by Cooperatives as buyers on GeM. The Government e Marketplace (GeM) was launched in August 9 by Ministry of Commerce and Industry 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.
The validated list of cooperatives to on board 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 on boarding process for cooperatives, provide the technical infrastructure to support additional users on existing portal, as well as provide assistance to cooperatives for on boarding and transaction journeys, via available contact centres, 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.
GeM will initiate suitable actions, which would inter alia include creation of necessary features and functionalities on GeM portal, up gradation of infrastructure, strengthening of the helpdesk and training ecosystem, and on boarding of cooperatives. The overall pace and mechanism of roll-out would be decided by Ministry of Cooperation. The milestones and target dates will be aligned mutually between Ministry of Cooperation and GeM (Ministry of Commerce and Industry).
