Government e-Marketplace working on series of steps to strengthen public procurement portal

Public procurement portal GeM is working on a series of steps including a mechanism for timely payment to vendors and rating buyers and sellers to promote its growth, a senior government official said.

The Commerce Ministry launched Government e-Marketplace (GeM), an online platform for public procurement, in August 2016 with the objective of creating an open and transparent procurement platform for government, which runs in several lakh crore. “We are working on several things like ensuring timely payment to vendors, helping MSMEs get working capital from banks and rating of both buyer and seller to improve efficiency,” the official said.