Aiming to tackle corruption and bringing transparency in public procurement, the government has asked ministries to publish all tenders and details of bid awards on a central portal from January 1.

"It will be mandatory for all ministries departments...to publish their tender enquiries, corrigenda thereon and details of bid awards on the Central Public Procurement portal ...," a Finance Ministry communique to ministries said.

The instructions were issued pursuant to the decisions of a Group of Ministers constituted to consider ways to tackle corruption and improving transparency in government functioning.

Earlier, the Committee on Public Procurement had made several recommendations on issues having an impact on policy, standards and procedures related to government purchases.

NIC (National Informatics Centre) will set up the CPP portal, which will be accessible at 'eprocure.gov.in'.

While the ministries and departments have been asked to publish the tender enquiries, corrigenda thereon and details of bid awards from January 1, the Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) will do so from February 1.

However, cases where confidentiality is required, for reasons of national security or to safeguard commercial interest of CPSE's, would be exempted from the requirements.

The Finance Ministry has also released a draft public procurement bill which proposes that private bidders for government business would be subject to penalties and imprisonment if they are found guilty of corruption, collusion and anti-competitive behaviour.