GeM promotion now a parameter in civil service officers' performance report

Promotion of public procurement portal GeM will now be included in annual performance assessment report (APAR) of central civil service officers as one of the parameters in their appraisal form.

The commerce ministry launched e-Marketplace (GeM) for public procurement of goods and services in August 2016 with an objective to create an open and transparent procurement platform for the government agencies, ministries and departments.

The value of total annual government procurement is estimated at Rs 8 lakh crore.

According to an official memorandum, "to ensure that this digital e-commerce portal for procurement of goods and services is appropriately utilized by all the ministries/departments, it has been decided, with the approval of the competent authority, that a reflection of the work done through GeM by the Officer Reported Upon (ORU) shall be made in the APAR of Group A, B and C officers belonging to central civil services (other than All India Services)".

Procurement of goods and services through GeM portal has been made mandatory by the government.

When contacted, GeM CEO Tallen Kumar told PTI: "It shows the importance of GeM as a national procurement portal for increasing transparency in a cashless, paperless and contact less system".

The memorandum said that the ORU, who are handling procurement from GeM portal in their ministry/department/organisation, while recording self-appraisal in APAR form, against the column 'Targets/Objectives/Goals' shall specify the total budget allocated for procurement by the ministry/ department/division/section'.

Against the column 'Achievements', the ORU would indicate the total procurement through GeM portal, made by him/her during the period of report, specifying the percentage of procurement through GeM; buying made outsides the portal and the reasons for that; and steps taken for promotion of the portal.

These provisions would be applicable for APAR from the reporting year 2019-20 onwards.

It added that the reporting and reviewing officers would in general while recording the numerical grading under work output, personal attributes and functional competency in the APARs, shall, wherever applicable take into account the performance of the ORU for procurement through GeM.

At present, government departments, ministries, public sector units, state governments, and Central Armed Police Forces are allowed to carry out transactions through this portal.

West Bengal-cadre IAS officer Talleen Kumar was recently appointed as the new chief executive officer of GeM.

According to GeM, 2,83,713 sellers and service providers have registered with the portal so far to sell 12,76,620 products and 17,241 services.

The portal provides a wide range of products from office stationery to vehicles. Automobiles, computers and office furniture are currently the top product categories.

Services, including transportation, logistics, waste management, web casting and analytical, among others, are listed on the portal.

Public procurement worth Rs 50,000 crore is expected to take place through GeM during 2019-20, up from Rs 33,366 crore currently.