The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : E-procurement to take off in a month

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Thursday, Aug 02, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

E-procurement to take off in a month

Staff Reporter

It will facilitate online government procurement activities

Project to be executed on a PPP basis
It will put an end to dominance by syndicates

BANGALORE: To keep blacklisted contractors out of the loop and also ensure transparency, the State Government will adopt a common e-procurement platform in six departments by next month.

Additional Chief Secretary Neerja Rajkumar told presspersons on Wednesday that a notification in this regard would be issued shortly. This platform will facilitate online government procurement activities like publishing of tenders, online bidding, empanelment of suppliers and contractors, contract management, and other procedures, she said.

“We are executing this project on a public-private-partnership (PPP) basis and we have signed an agreement with HP India to run the platform. Initially, the project will be implemented in Karnataka Residential Institutional Society of the Social Welfare Department; Karnataka State Highway Improvement Project (K-SHIP) of the Public Works Department; Krishna Bhagya Jala Nigam Ltd. of the Water Resources Department; KPTCL, Energy Department; Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan of the Education Department and Karnataka Drugs Logistics and Warehousing Society, Health and Family Welfare Department.

Explaining that the e-procurement platform would be a ‘win-win’ situation for all, Ms. Rajkumar said it would put an end to dominance by contractors’ syndicate in each department.

“Transparency in contract management, bidding and request-for-proposals creation of a database of contractors, digitalisation of contract reports, and even attaching treasury transactions that would speed up payments and cut costs are some of the benefits that make e-procurement a very attractive prospect,” she said.

E-Governance Secretary Rajeev Chawla said after e-procurement was adopted in all the departments, the State Government would be able to save more than Rs 1,300 crore. “We are also getting a baseline survey done with assistance from IIM, Ahmedabad. We are conducting training sessions for contractors on how to submit tenders, make payments and complete all other formalities online. There is no opposition to the scheme from any quarters,” he said.

That apart, contractors who do not bag the contracts will get back their earnest money deposit (EMD) along with interest for the period during which their amount was with the Government, he added.

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