Union Cabinet allows procurement by Cooperatives through GeMs

The Union Cabinet has approved the registration of cooperative societies as ‘Buyers’ on Government e-Marketplace (GeM) platform. 

Government e-Marketplace:

• Government e-Marketplace (GeM) has been set up as a National Procurement Portal to provide an end-to-end online market place for Central and State Government Ministries/ Departments, and PSUs etc. for procurement of common-use goods and services in a transparent and efficient manner. 
• The GeM was launched in 2016 by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry to create an open and transparent procurement platform for government buyers.
• Three pillars of GeM are:
  • Inclusion
  • Transparency
  • Efficiency

About:

• Ministry of Cooperation is encouraging Multi State Cooperative Societies and Cooperative Societies registered under State Cooperative Acts to join the GeM platform for the benefit of their members.
• GeM authorities will provide a dedicated on-boarding process for cooperatives, technical infrastructure and support for on-boarding and transactions, via available contact centres, in-field training, and other support services.
  
  

How registration of cooperative societies as ‘Buyers’ will help?

• At present, there are about 8.54 lakh cooperatives in India with about 29 crore membership.
• They have been performing a wide range of activities for the production of goods and services.
• These cooperatives make huge purchases of goods and services from the open market to support their operations. 
• There was a felt need to provide a platform to them to avail competitive prices through a transparent and efficient process resulting in benefit to the members of the cooperative societies.
• This will enable the cooperative societies to access more than 45 Lakh vendors on a single platform and to follow a transparent, economic and efficient procurement system.

Benefits of purchases through GeM:

• The Cooperatives would get competitive prices through an open and transparent process, and this would be economically beneficial to the members of the societies.
• The Cooperative societies can procure from about 45 lakh authenticated sellers/ service providers available across the country on a single GeM platform,
• Following the standard procedures on GeM would lead to saving of time and reduction in the administrative burden.
• It would enhance the credibility of the cooperatives as complaints of mismanagement of funds will get reduced.