An awareness training programme on use of e-procurement and e-tendering organised by Department of Information Technology and Communication was conducted at Secretariat Conference Hall, Wednesday, where heads of all government departments took part.
Addressing the programme, Chief Secretary, Pankaj Kumar stressed the need for more advanced technology for carrying out works by government departments. He also said such workshop would help officers and employees of the departments to be equipped with more updates to face challenges.
Panjak also informed that many states of the country adopted e-procurement policy and said that e-procurement is cost effective and would help the government in maintaining transparency in procurement of various items from bidders. Describing e-procurement system as a key to progress, the chief secretary said the works of the government departments will be more transparent and vibrant by using the available resources.
He also urged all heads of government departments to be inquisitive about the system and determined to be master so that they can lead their departments towards transparency and efficiency.
Commissioner and Secretary IT & C nodal officer of state e-procurement and tendering, KD Vizo informed all the departments which had not yet opted for e-tendering and e-procurement to submit their consent to the state’s e-procurement and e-tender cell. He also informed that the state government has opted for e-procurement system of NIC (GePNIC) solution of NIC which has already been used by four departments- PWD (National Highways), Information technology & Communication, Power Department, PMGSY and state quality control board.
Vizo further pointed out that Nagaland State Level Core Committee (SLCC) has been constituted with Chief Secretary as chairman and the Department of IT &C as nodal department. He said that this committee has mandated Nagaland State e-Procurement & Tendering Cell (NSePTC) to support the e-procurement and e-tendering process by way of facilitating the process of registering e-tender, issuing of Digital Signature Certificate (DSC) and Token, training etc.
He also informed that so far 22 departments have given written consent, 3 have given verbal consent, 5 have already implemented e-procurement and tendering system and while training has been imparted to 17 departments.
It may be mentioned that National Informatics Centre (NIC), Department of Electronics and Information Technology, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India has developed its own e-procurement software solution- GePNIC to cater the procurement/ tendering requirements of the government departments and organizations.
The solution is generic in nature and can easily be adopted for all kinds of online procurement of goods, services and works, by Government deptts/organisations and aims at transparency and non-discrimination amongst bidders by allowing free 24X7 accesses to tender documents. It supports secure online bid submission using internet through industry standard open technologies.
The system has been designed taking into account the procurement rules followed by central/ states and also the CVC’s guidelines on tendering.
The resource persons for the awareness training were officials from IT & C.