GeM is most transparent and efficient e-procurement portal: Sitharaman

Aamir H Kaki

The Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said that the government e-marketplace (GeM) is the most transparent, accountable and efficient public procurement portal, while denying the opposition Congress party’s allegations of corruption as baseless, referring to the public procurement done on the portal.

“GeM is the most transparent, accountable and efficient public procurement portal and has already resulted in the savings of crores of rupees to the Government,” she said while briefing the journalists at a press conference at Udyog Bhawan, New Delhi.

“The processes on GeM are completely transparent and GeM is the first Government portal that places all the procurements - big or small - by Government organisations in public domain, with details about the buyer, seller, item, quantity and price,” she added.

The GeM had been in news the last few days, when Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala alleged corruption in procurement under the portal in a press conference held on April 21. The basis of Surjewala’s allegations were the letters written by a Union Minister and six BJP MPs to Sitharaman.

Strongly denying the allegations, Sitharaman said, “The Department of Commerce strongly denies the baseless, motivated and malafide charges levelled by Surjewala against the GeM. As for the letter from Ajay Nishad, MP, Lok Sabha, he has told me that it is not his” Sitharaman said. Both the letter from Ajay Nishad as well as from Ashok M. Nete are forged and contain the exact same language, she added.

“In addition, the letters written by six MPs - Harish Dwivedi, Arjun Lal Meena, Alok Sanjar, Rajesh Verma, Radheshyam Biswas and Kaushal Kishore, have all put in similar request of extension of software, storage, networking, security items on DGS&D Rate Contract (RC),” the Minister said.

“The letter from Faggan Singh Kulaste, MoS Health and Family Welfare was a forwarded one from a company functionary - Anuj Pandey, GM - Sales at HCL. However, HCL has now disowned the letter saying that it has no employee with that name and designation,” she informed.

Sitharaman said that she regretted the allegations of corruption levelled by the Congress party, labelling it as a work done  in “a hurry without any homework.”

Replying to a question on H1-B visa issue, the Minister said that she has discussed the issue of H1-B visa with the US government, while adding that the sovereign right of a country to issue a visa cannot be questioned.

The US is reviewing the H1-B visa so that there is no abuse over its use and it remains transparent, she said.