Roundtable with Ministries and CPSEs held on 14 Jan as part of GeM Samvaad

Commerce Secretary highlighted the need for full utilization of the potential of GeM.

GeM Samvaad, a two-month-long national outreach programme was launched on 17th December 2019 to reach out to stakeholders across the country and also local sellers in order to facilitate the on-boarding of local sellers on the marketplace while catering to specific requirements and procurement needs of buyers.

The outreach programme took off from 19th December 2019 and during the launch week the States of Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, and Andhra Pradesh were covered.

GeM Samvaad is being conducted in all States and Union Territories. After the first four states, the outreach programme has been held in J & K on 5th January, Ladakh on 7th January, Assam, and Bihar on 9th January and Chandigarh on 8th January 2020. All the outreach programs witnessed an overwhelming participation of buyers and sellers. GeM senior officers are steering the programs. They are also interacting with buyers and sellers attending the events. Arrangements for the outreach programs including logistics are made by the respective State Governments. The target is to reach out to all stakeholders and learn from their experiences on their usage of the GeM portal. Through this outreach programme, GeM expects to make the actual users aware of the new features and functionalities of the portal and collect feedback, which is the first step towards GeM’s ‘Voice of Customer’ initiative.

A Roundtable with Ministries/Departments & Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) was held on 14 January 2020 in New Delhi as part of GeM Samvaad. It was chaired by Secretary, Department of Commerce, Government of India and CEO GeM.

More than 100 participants including Financial Advisors & nodal officers of Ministries, Departments, and representatives of CPSEs participated in the Roundtable and shared their feedback, challenges, and suggestions.

Commerce Secretary highlighted the need for full utilization of the potential of GeM. He stated that Rule 149 of GFR and directives of the Department of Public Enterprises make the procurement of goods and services by Ministries and CPSEs mandatory for goods and services available on GeM and the same should not be violated.

The gem is continuously working to bring all the items on-board and buyers should accelerate this process by providing specifications of categories and asking sellers to onboard GeM. He further emphasized the importance of timely payments to sellers and stated that buyers should ensure payments to sellers on time.

State Departments and Organizations and Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs) have been using GeM for their buying needs. Sellers from the States are also benefitting through access to the national Public Procurement market using the portal. Through GeM Samvaad the marketplace is looking forward to receiving feedback from users which will be used for making improvements and advancements in the system.

GeM has more than 15 lakh products and around 20,000 services, more than 3 lakh registered sellers and service providers and more than 40,000 Government buyer organizations. In its short journey of three years, GeM has processed more than 28 lakh orders worth Rs. 40,000 crores in Gross Merchandise Value out of which 50% has been transacted by MSMEs.

(With Inputs from PIB)