Abstract

eProcurement in Municipalities/Corporations Of Government of Tamil Nadu

April 2011

National Informatics Centre Tamil Nadu State Unit Chennai

eProcurement in Municipalities/Corporations Of Government of Tamil Nadu

Executive Summary
This document focuses on the existing practices of eProcurement activities that are taking place in the Municipalities/Corporations in the Government of Tamil Nadu, the current level and size of procurement activities and various systems that are in place for enhancing the transparency in the Procurement Process. The existing level of computerisation and the preparedness to take forward to cover all the Municipalities/Corporations is also covered. The roll out strategy for enhancing the transparency in the procurement process is also in highlighted the in this document. to The success of implementations and the experiences gained on the same are also incorporated adoption. eProcurement application facilitate quicker

eProcurement in Municipalities/Corporations Of Government of Tamil Nadu

1. Introduction eProcurement is the process by which the physical tendering activity is carried out using Internet and associated technologies. eProcurement facilitates the user to introduce ease and efficiency without compromising the required procedures cycle time, of the of organisation operation and to also provides transparency, resulting in the savings of time and money, shortening of procurement ease the implementing organisation and to the bidders. Corporations/Municipalities provide basic civil amenities to the citizens under their jurisdiction. Procurement is one of the important activities in all the Municipalities/Corporations and lots of money are spent in this regard towards floating various types of tenders covering Goods, Works and Services. In view of its importance, the Commissionerate of Municipal Administration, Government of Tamil Nadu has decided to implement the eProcurement system in all the Municipalities/Corporations to realise the benefits of the system.

1.1

Issues in the manual Procurement process

The manual tender system has got the following deficiencies: Non Availability of tender schedules to suppliers Non-standardisation of tender process Cartel formation to suppress competition Physical threats to bidders Tender Boxes at Multiple locations

Tampering of tender files Delays in finalization of tenders Human interface at every stage Lack of Transparency and accountability

2. Objectives Though both, the Government and private initiatives on e-Procurement system, primarily target to achieve significant cost and process efficiencies through the exercise, equally important objectives being aimed at by Government agencies are maximum transparency through dissemination of information at every stage and ensuring wide and equal access to tender opportunities overcoming all barriers created by vested interests. These objectives are constantly being pursued and monitored by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), a Government body, which advocates e-procurement as an effective tool to achieve these. 3. GePNIC Software To cater to the increasing demand towards the implementation of the eProcurement system in the Government sectors, NIC , under the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, has developed a generic eProcurement system namely GePNIC. The system has been developed taking into account of the practices followed in various Government organisations across the country.

The GePNIC application software primarily caters to the processes of Online Tender configuration, Publishing, Bid submission, Bid Opening, updating of bid evaluation recommendations and Award of Contract, in the tender processing cycle. The major features of the software include:

Enhanced Transparency Adherence to IT ACT 2000, Adhering to Guidelines of ADB,CVC and PWD procurement guidelines

Accessibility of Information to all Secured storage of Data User Friendly Software Automatic Mail/SMS alerts at various events All documents are digitally signed and bids are encrypted Two factor authentication

3.1

Digital Signature Certificates (DSC)

The Digital Signature Certificates are an integral part of the entire eProcurement process. They have to be used by both the buyers i.e Government officials as well as bidders, to ensure the security of the transactions, authentication of the users of the system and the digital signing of the documents published in the eProcurement site at various points of time. DSCs are the legal requirements under the Indian IT Act.

3.2

Security of the Data

Security is one of the paramount importance in any eProcurement system. One of the important aspects of the data relating to bidders is storing the data in a secure way and retrieving it when needed. All the tender documents published will be digitally signed by the Tender Inviting Authority and securely stored in the server on uploading the document. This will help in verifying the integrity of the uploaded tender document. In the case of contractors data, the data files will be digitally signed by using the DSC of the Contractor and the data is encrypted using the keys of the

Bid Openers. This encrypted data can be decrypted only on or after the specified tender opening date and time and only when all the indicated bid openers are logged in using the DSC. For opening a tender, a minimum of two and a maximum of three Bid openers will be allowed in a Tender. The GePNIC application automatically maintains the audit trail or audit log of all transactions carried out by any of the user thus ensuring a completely reliable system. The application conforms to the security guidelines circulated by CVC in September 2009 and April 2010 respectively. 4. Roll out strategy of the eProcurement System The Government of Tamil Nadu has implemented the GePNIC system from November 2007 onwards and this system has been adopted for use by all the Municipalities/Corporations under the Commissionerate of Municipal Administration from February 2009 onwards. The system has been hosted in the secured Data Centre of NIC Tamil Nadu unit. Since the system is residing in the secured data centre, the chances of the tampering of the valuable data is not possible. The access to the required data to the stake holders is made available at any point of time, through the GePNIC system. Since the system is centrally hosted, standardisation of the processes is easily enforceable across all the Municipalities/Corporations. As the rollout is large in nature, NIC has been extending the technical and training support through its district units and also through the IT manpower of the respective Municipalities/Corporations. This has helped in making the rolling out the system smoothly at the field levels. It is learnt that wherever the handholding support is provided at the field level, the adoption to the change is appreciable.

6. Status of Implementation in the States/Organisations The GePNIC system has been implemented in the

Municipalities/Corporations of Tamil Nadu starting from February 2009 onwards. So far, around 9020 tenders with a value of Rs. 2606.51 Crores have been published in more than 150 Municipalities/Corporations throughout the state , within a period of 2 years. Every day tenders are getting published, opened and evaluations are updated across the Municipalities/Corporations in Tamil Nadu. 6. Benefits of Implementing the GePNIC system: Fast & efficient process, reduced the procurement cycle time. Number of retenderings have come down The complete procurement transaction through GePNIC happens in a transparent manner. The system captures the justification and comments of approvers at each stage and thereby enables users and approvers associated with a transaction to justify their decision. Encryption ensures integrity of the bids submitted. eProcurement system brought down the cost of doing business for the suppliers which in turn brought down the prices quoted by the suppliers. eProcurement system enables a creation of centralised data base of procurement process, which has helped to bring out any reports on the procurement activities.

6.1

Benefits to bidders
Information on all tenders is available at one place to the suppliers. The bidder need not make unnecessary trips to the Organisation to collect details on the tenders published. The bidder need not submit bulky multiple copies of his bid in paper form.

24x7 access enables the bidder to submit his bid and access to tender status, from anywhere and anytime After online bid submission, the bidder can know the status of his bid online The bidder is allowed to modify his bid even after his bid is submitted online. Increased reach as the bidder has access to the tenders of all the depts. Lower bidder development cost as various departments will have new suppliers on the web application. The system inspired confidence among the bidders as being fair & transparent.

7. Summary The document focuses on enhancing Transparency by adopting to eProcurement system in the Municipalities/Corporations in the Government of Tamil Nadu and also facilitates bringing in uniformity in the tender processing across the Municipalities/Corporations in Tamil Nadu.

Authors: 1)Mr M Manivannan Senior Technical Director NIC Chennai : mvn@nic.in mobile: 9445022200

2)Mr K Srinivasan Raghavan Senior Technical Director NIC Chennai : ks.raghavan@nic.in