Union Cabinet approves expanding mandate of GeM to allow procurement by Cooperatives as Buyers

The Union Cabinet today approved expanding the mandate of Government e-Marketplace GeM to allow procurement by Cooperatives as Buyers.

Briefing media in New Delhi, Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Singh Thakur said, the move will help Cooperatives in getting competitive prices through an open and transparent process. He said, over 8.54 lakh registered cooperatives and their 27 crore members will benefit.

The Minister said, the Ministry of Cooperation will decide on a validated list of cooperatives to be onboarded on GeM. He said, GeM will provide a dedicated onboarding process for cooperatives. Mr Thakur said, after opening the GeM portal, Self-Help Groups, MSMEs and small businesses have benefited a lot. He said, different PSUs, Ministries, Departments, autonomous bodies or local bodies of the Government started buying from the GeM portal.

GeM is already adequately developed as a one-stop portal to facilitate online procurement of common use Goods and Services. It is transparent, efficient, has an economy of scale and is speedy in procurement. Cooperative Societies will now be allowed to procure goods and services from GeM.

Allowing Cooperative Societies to register on GeM as Buyers would help Cooperatives in getting competitive prices through an. open and, transparent process. The validated list of cooperatives to be onboarded on GeM - for the pilot as well as subsequent scale-up - will be decided by the Ministry of Cooperation in consultation with GeM SPV. This will ensure that the technical capacity and logistics requirements of the GeM system are taken into account while deciding the pace of onboarding of Cooperative as buyers on GeM.

GeM will provide a dedicated onboarding process for cooperatives, provide the technical infrastructure to support additional users on the existing portal, as well as assist cooperatives with onboarding and transaction journeys, via available contact centers, in-field training and other support services.

Ministry of Cooperation would issue necessary advisories to encourage the Cooperative Societies to make use of the GeM platform for procurement of goods and services in order to benefit from increased transparency, efficiency and competitive prices. To protect the interests of the broader seller community on GeM and ensure timely payments, the modalities of payment systems shall be decided by GeM in consultation with the Ministry of Cooperation.

The Government e-Marketplace (GeM) was launched on August 9, 2016, by the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry to create an open and transparent procurement platform for Government buyers. A Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) by the name of Government e-Marketplace (GeM SPV) was set up as the National Public Procurement Portal on May 17, 2017, in pursuance of the approval, of the Union Cabinet, accorded on April 12, 2017.

At present, the platform is open for procurement by all government buyers: central and state ministries, departments, public sector enterprises, autonomous institutions, local bodies, etc. As per the existing mandate, GeM is not available for use by private sector buyers. Suppliers (sellers) can be from across all segments: the government or private.