Commerce secretary Rita Teaotia said that Government E-Marketplace (GeM) has been developed within a short span of five months. She added that owing to the transparency, ease, efficiency and time-bound payment offered by GeM, it is the way forward and would very soon become the standard mode of procurement by government agencies.

Speaking at a workshop on GeM for vendors for e-procurement on Monday, the official said that GeM would be a game changer in public procurement and would give an impetus to Make in India by removing the entry barriers for doing business with the government, said a press release.

Teaotia stated that although it has been made mandatory on GeM to make payment to the vendors within 10 days of receipt of goods/services, efforts should be made to further reduce this time span as time is money and ultimately the cost of delayed payment is born by the government.

She said that GeM will enable the government buyers to bypass the cumbersome tendering system and instead procure using a system that offers ease of operation similar to e-commerce sites.

The training session was attended by more than 200 suppliers from sectors such as information technology, electrical goods, transport services etc., from across the country.

Radha Chauhan, CEO of National e-Governance Division (NeGD), in her address mentioned about the concept of GeM and how it has been developed. She emphasised the fact that payment process has been simplified and made time bound in GeM, thereby making it easy for suppliers to get their payment from buying Government organizations on time.