VISION AND STRATEGY FOR E-PROCUREMENT IN DELHI
With the purpose to enhance transparency in governance especially with regard to procurement and tendering it was realised to shift to electronic mode. This was initiated on fi rst priority because of day-to-day increasing instances and complaints of mal-practices in the process of procurement and tendering. The basic aspect behind e-Procuring/e-Tendering was to minimise the individual interaction between the vendor and buyer. Moreover, MCD (Municipal Corporation of Delhi) is committed to adopt the administrative reforms promulgated by Government of India regarding e-Governance and other procedural reforms which is also a pre-requisite for qualifying for Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).
KEY SECTORS WHERE E-PROCUREMENT HAS BEEN INITIATED
MCD has now shifted to total online procurement / tendering for all types of procurements in almost all the departments. Some of departments are at initial stages of its adoption.
COST-REDUCTION, EFFICIENCY, TRANSPARENCY ACHIEVED
So far MCD has been able to reduce the stationery in the form of bid documents and allied manual workload. The tender fee being charged from the vendors is more than the processing fee and allied expenditure on e-Tendering module. The another sector of cost deduction which is in sight is advertisement cost for tenders/ procurements from registered vendors of MCD and this will be a major cost reduction in millions of Indian Rupees every year. Despite the fact that the software is still under process of customisation it has contributed effi ciency enhancement by way of removal of repetitive typing and printing activities with regard to procurement / tendering. Being a web based application it is in public domain and transparency is not at all doubtable. However, it also has inbuilt checks to reduce the probability of mal-practices in the process.
TRAINING AND CAPACITY BUILDING PROCESS
Before the launch of e-Procurement/e-Tendering system, MCD notifi ed through media to all concerned vendors / buyers to get themselves fully acquainted with the process for which an infrastructure for training at the fi xed venue was created. Registered vendors of MCD were also communicated through letters with specifi c allotment of date and batch for training. Later on even open options were given to vendors to get them trained. Training was also organised for departmental users like tender clerks, accountants, and so on.
CHANGE MANAGEMENT ISSUES
For adoption of e-Procurement/e-Tendering some process re-engineering were also required and those have been implemented in phases, however there is still scope of further process changes along with phase–II customisation of software for e-Procurement/e-Tendering of process. Payment gateways integration have also been initiated with UTI Bank. Initially the site was hosted at vendor’s server. Now it has been shifted to MCD server at C-DAC (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing). After three years of maintenance of the software by the vendor, MCD will decide further change in the management of site and software.
FUTURE INITIATIVES PLANNED
MCD has planned the complete customisation inclusive of payment gateway integration of the system by next fi nancial year. It has also been planned to integrate with online working of the department for which software is at fi nal stage of launching. Thereafter the entire process, right from estimation till execution as well as payment will be online.