e-Procurement

Efficiency to The Government Procurement

e-Procurement is a key initiative in bringing transparency and efficiency to the Government Procurement and is being increasingly adopted by the Centre and many states to meet their procurement needs. Chhattisgarh is one of the few states that have implemented the e Procurement system as early as 2007 through Chips in a Public Private Partnership mode (PPP) partnering with an SI selected through an RFP process. Since then the e Procurement system was quickly adopted by majority of the departments and the value and volumes of procurement through the e Procurement system during this period indicates the success of this initiative.

In the second phase ERP based Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) Integrated e Procurement solution is going to be implemented in the state, which does not levy any charges on the department or the vendors, all the charges shall be borne by the Government of Chhattisgarh for this project.

Chhattisgarh InfoTech Promotion Society (Chips), an autonomous nodal agency for implementation of e-Governance projects for the Government of Chhattisgarh, shall act as the nodal agency for implementation of the e Procurement system in the State.

The implementation includes the deployment of various modules from proposal / requirement preparation till payment to the contractors/ suppliers. The various modules are as given below:

Indent Management
e-Tendering
e-Auctions
Contract Management
Catalogue Management
Centralized Supplier Registration
e-Payments
Accounting
MIS

Institutional Structure

State Nodal Officer: The Principal Secretary, PWD is the State Nodal Officer for e-Procurement Project
Empowered Committee: This is a State high level committee with the Chief Secretary, Government of Chhattisgarh as its Chairman and 9 other department Secretaries as its members. The prime responsibility of the committee is to supervise the overall project and take strategic decisions for the project implementation
Task Force Committee: This committee is headed by the Principal Secretary, Government of Chhattisgarh, Public Works Department, as its Chairman and all Head of pilot Departments, as its members. The prime responsibility of the committee is to guide the implementation of the project and suggest the Empowered Committee for smooth project implementation
Eprocurement Review Committee: The committee is headed by the CEO, Chips who is also the Project Director for eProcurement and the project team members are its members wherein, the ASP is also a member. The prime responsibility of this committee is to review the progress of the project implementation on regular intervals

Vision

The Vision of the e-Procurement Project is to enhance the efficiency and transparency in public procurement through the implementation of a comprehensive Integrated e-Procurement solution to be used by all government organizations in the State.

The entire public procurement activity undertaken by the government shall be channeled through the e-Procurement infrastructure in a phased manner. Efficiency in handling public procurement by the government departments/ organizations shall be enhanced through automation and process reengineering. The system shall enable the government maintain a clear picture of its procurement activities on a real-time basis. Transparency in public procurement will be enhanced as all in the supplier community have equal and unbiased access to opportunities advertised online. By implementing e Procurement the Government of Chhattisgarh aims to catalyse participation of the supplier community in e-commerce.

Mission

To implement end-to-end Integrated e-Procurement system across all offices in the State’
The following actions are to be taken for attaining the vision

The project shall be implemented in consultation with the stakeholders
The solution is to be implemented in a phased manner both function-wise and geography-wise. Initially, the solution will be deployed in all the departments which have adopted e-Procurement. Then, the system will be deployed across other departments as directed by Chips in the state in a phased manner
The implementation has to be accompanied by efforts in the area of Government Process Reengineering (GPR)
The supplier community and government employees are provided adequate training as required for engaging in e-Procurement
The ICT infrastructure in government departments has to be developed to enable them to effectively participate in e-Procurement

Objectives of the e-Procurement Project at Chhattisgarh

‘Chips’ aims to achieve the following overall objectives with the implementation of Integrated e-Procurement:

Transparency Introduce the maximum extent of transparency in the public procurement by making the required information available on the Internet
Efficiency Efficiency of processes, better governance, effectiveness of outcomes and value for money, including project cycle time, inventories, economies of scale
Economic development Business and economic development through efficiency, competition, opportunity and technology
Cost Savings through higher competition A result of wider publicity to Government procurement opportunities
Cost Savings through demand aggregation The ability to aggregate Government departments’ demand to leverage buying power with the supply market
Reduced inventory costs Improved planning and management of inventory leading to lower levels of inventory
Internal arbitrage Ensuring consistency in goods and services costs at the best price across all Departments at item level
Consistent and sustainable contractor development Enabling pre-qualified vendors the opportunity to access of other government departments
Transactional effectiveness Eliminating or automating non-value adding steps within the procurement to enable efficient and effective processes
Reduced Total cost of Ownership Understanding the supply chain and life cycle costs in procurement to establish value adding supply relationships leading to reduced cost of doing business for both government and industry
Effective tender processing Use of different types of e-Auctions to get better prices for Chips
Open platform Level playing field and “fair” competitive platform for the suppliers
Disposals Accessing a wider customer base when disposing of redundant assets
Smart governance Increased transparency, monitoring and control of procurement process

A commonly repeated objective of any e-Procurement implementation is that of enhanced transparency. The Government of Chhattisgarh has identified transparency and efficiency as major objectives

In line with this, following are the specific objectives set out by the State Government for implementation of e-Procurement project

To improve transparency in the procurement procedures and practices
To bring in efficiency throughout the procurement process and minimize the procurement cycle time
To foster and encourage participation and promote competition among suppliers
To harness economies of scale through demand aggregation and maximize value for money in government procurement
To enhance decision-making capabilities of procurement officials by providing procurement information through MIS
To improve service levels to all stakeholders involved in government procurement
To ensure confidentiality, integrity and authenticity of all transactions and data between the procurement entities and the suppliers
To optimize inventory levels through the adoption of efficient procurement practices
To enhance citizens’ confidence in the government procurement process and the utilization of public funds
To usher in state-of-the-art procurement practices together with the necessary technology intervention

The functional and technical requirements of the e-Procurement system have been designed in accordance to the above stated objectives

Envisaged benefits from the e-Procurement Project

The envisaged benefits from the e-Procurement Chhattisgarh project are wide reaching, and span the entire range of stakeholders. The stakeholders in this project include:

The political and administrative set-up in the Government of Chhattisgarh
Procurement entities (GOC Departments & Corporations)
Supplier & Contractor community across India, who participate in the procurement activities of GOC
Citizens and Non-Governmental Organizations

Project Milestones:

The e-Procurement project was officially launched by the Hon’ble Chief Minister of the State Dr. Raman Singh on 14th August, 2007
Constitution of a State level Empowered Committee, Chaired by Chief Secretary, for making policy and strategic decisions on e-Procurement from time to time
Constitution of Task Force Committee for supervising the operational aspect of the project
Mandatory adoption of e-Procurement solution for all tenders above Rs. 10 lacks
The project has been successfully adopted by more than 40 departments