To make buying by Government departments more transparent, the Bangla Government has introduced a model called Government e-Marketplace (GEM).
GEM is in the form of a portal. Details regarding the purchase of any stationery item by a department costing more than Rs 10,000 would have to be put up on the portal. All vendors of the Government would also have to be registered on the portal.
After the details are put up, online tenders would be issued. As happens with any tender, the vendor bidding the lowest amount would get the tender. About 4 lakh items would be available through this portal.
A special training was organised at Nabanna for officials of all the departments in batches, from August 6 to 10. Officials of the Finance Department provided the training. For each department, a nodal officer and two master trainers have been identified, who were provided the training. They, in turn, would train the colleagues of their departments who deal with procurement.
This is another fruitful step by the Trinamool Congress Government in making e-governance an integral part of the governmental system. Systems like e-tender, Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS), Government Receipt Portal System (GRIPS) and Human Research Management System (HRMS) by the Finance Department are up and running for quite some time.
From January this year, the process was started to make all Government offices into e-offices, whereby all paper documents of all departments are being scanned in a step-by-step manner and stored online, and easy retrieval systems being put in place.
Source: Bartaman