The government e-market (GeM) will increase its operations into government projects with a market value of Rs 10 trillion in this financial year by developing end-to-end contactless and paperless systems, to bring standardisation and transparency in the bidding process of government, beginning with the panchayat and urban local body levels. The GeM aids central and state government departments to get the best value for the taxpayers' money by carrying out efficient public procurement using tools. The earlier system included the bids physical invitation, bid evaluation, and winning bid finalisation under the directorate general of supplies and disposals. GeM chief executive officer Prashant Kumar Singh told the media that after initially focusing on government procurement of goods and services, the GeM will now expand into the projects bidding process of central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) and governments. While public sector enterprises (PSEs) may be well-endowed to come out with their requests for proposals (RFPs), urban local bodies or panchayats don’t have the resources to make a proper RFP. Though the intention is there, there is no standardisation in the bidding process, he said. He further added that it will provide you the standardised bidding document when you specify your requirement. It will give end-to-end service from payment and project implementation to the post-contracting phase. For real-time monitoring, it will also help milestone-based payments and e-measurement of the project progress on a dashboard. GeM has already received its order for developing GeM works. Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her FY21 budget speech had intended to build a unified procurement system in the country through the GeM platform. It gives a big opportunity for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs). GeM works will lead to bidding process standardisation of the project across the country and will eliminate the corruption scope, he said. Image Source