With a stringent ‘zero tolerance’ policy, the Uttar Pradesh government has managed to curb corruption, which was prevalent in all departmental purchases in the state during previous governments, through the GeM portal.
“By mandating all purchases by government departments and their subordinate institutions through the GeM portal, the process has reflected transparency as well as has eliminated human interface, thereby diminishing the chances of corruption in the last four years,” a government a spokesman said, adding that through this process, the government departments had made maximum purchases in the country even amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said the purchases had climbed up by about 20 times in the last four-and-a-half years because of which Uttar Pradesh had outperformed all the other states and has acquired the first spot country-wide.
“Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had instructed officials to operationalise the GeM portal effectively to establish a corruption-free environment. Uttar Pradesh has also achieved the first position in the purchase from GeM portal, followed by Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Maharashtra, Bihar, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Punjab at number 10,” he said.
Government records say that in the first quarter of the financial year 2019-20, procurement worth Rs 365 crore was done through the GeM portal. Whereas during the Covid period, procurement worth Rs 561 crore was done in the first quarter of the financial year 2020-21, procurement of Rs ,2075 crore was completed in the first quarter of the current financial year 2021-22. As a result, the purchases have seen a four-fold increase this year as compared to last year.
The Urban Development department has made maximum purchases through the GeM portal in the state, followed by the Health department, Basic Education department, Medical Education department, Home department, Vocational Education and Skill Development Department, Food and Logistics Department and Information and Public Relations Department.
Additional Chief Secretary (MSME) Navneet Sehgal said corruption involving crores of rupees had been curbed and stopped with the transparent procurement process enabled by the GeM portal. He said priority was being given to quality and transparency in departmental purchases, due to which today there were about 12,589 government buyers and over 1,81,487 sellers on the portal, including nearly 60,906 entrepreneurs of micro and small businesses. More than 2.5 lakh people have also got direct and indirect employment from these industries.
In the last four years, government departments have placed 5,45,660 orders worth Rs 11,885 crore, he added. The GeM portal is a platform where more than 1,81,487 sellers are registered. Thousands of products from these vendors are also available at the prescribed rates and standards. The state government mandates that the products or services that are available on the GeM portal will be compulsorily purchased from the GeM portal.
