Central armed police forces, UTs to source goods from GeM

All central armed police forces and Union Territories have been asked to procure goods and services from government's e-market place (GeM) in order to meet their requirements at competitive prices.
The Ministry of Home Affairs has directed these forces and Union Territories (UTs) to source goods and services from this platform.
"It was directed to these police forces and UTs to purchase goods and services from the GeM portal. If some products are not there, they can provide specifications of those goods to GeM," a senior commerce ministry official, who did not wish to be named, said.
So far, these forces and UTs are sourcing goods and services of their own through tendering process.

The main requirements of central armed police forces (CAPFs) include stationary, dress, shoes, mattress, bed, bus and trucks.
The move is aimed at bringing in more transparency and streamlining the procurement of these forces, which include Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), and Union Territories (UTs).

The commerce ministry last year launched the GeM for online purchase of goods and services by central government ministries, departments and agencies.
The ministry is working with IT firm Intellect Design Arena Ltd to make the portal more dynamic and vibrant.
The scaling up of the GeM portal assumes significance as public procurement of the central and state governments runs into over Rs 2 lakh crore annually.

Use of government's e-marketplace by the central and state departments would also help save taxpayers' money.
When contacted a senior CAPF official said the forces will now route their procurements through the GeM portal and they have tasked their special wings to prepare the format.
"All the minor and major equipment and gadgets will be procured through GeM now. However, specialised requirements like weapons will be procured through the ministry of home affairs or the defence ministry," the official said.
The official added that all the CAPFs will send separate procurement lists and in case of common purchase, the requirements will be clubbed and sent to the GeM.

As many as nine states, including Uttar Pradesh and Telangana, have also signed a memorandum of understanding for smart procurement of goods and services.
So far, 27,846 sellers are registered with the portal to sell 1,31,839 products. Four services, including tax, security, digitisation and scanning, are also there on the website.