The Hindu                       18.04.2013

Govt. procurement goes online

Move to usher in transparency and accountability.

In a move to enhance transparency and accountability,
the territorial administration has launched e-procurement Mission Mode
Project (MMP).

This is a web-based system aimed at
enhancing transparency, accountability, reliability and responsiveness
in all government procurement activities for all kinds of procurement
such as goods, services and works. It enables secure online bid
submission, online payment of tender fee and earnest money deposit and
access to bid opening event from any place on a round-the-clock basis
through the internet.

It has made Digital Signature
Certificate (DSC) mandatory for e-procurement transactions by both the
tender inviting departments and bidders to ensure security of
transactions, authentification and digitally sign the tender documents
to be published on the e-procurement portal.

As per
gazette notification, procurement with an estimated cost of Rs. 10 lakh
and above are required to go through the tender process by all
government departments through the e-procurement
portal,http://pudutenders.gov.in, within the time limit prescribed for
each department.

A separate e-procurement cell has
also been established in Chief Vigilance Office, Puducherry, to monitor
the project in the Union Territory. All individual and companies
desirous of participating in tenders through e-procurement should obtain
the DSC from accredited certifying authorities such as TCS, Sify,
n-Code, etc. They will approach the e-procurement cell through the
respective departments for help.

A core committee has
also been set up to maximise the use of the portal by all departments.
T. Sreekant, Secretary, IT; Pankaj Kumar Jha, Additional Secretary
(Administrative Reforms Wing), and S. Rajasekaran, State Informatics
Centre, NIC, are the members.

W.V.R. Murthy,
Secretary, Finance, said that the Animal Husbandry Department was the
first department to award the first contract through the e-procurement
portal. It had awarded a contract for Rs. 58 lakh to procure various
materials through online tendering process.

The
importance of expediting the use of e-procurement system has been
communicated to all heads of various departments. It was an easy,
transparent and efficient method to award contracts. The heads of
departments have been directed to switch over e-procurement method as
quickly as possible, he said.