Fair, transparent public procurement will protect revenue of state : Jaitley

Speed Post News Network

New Delhi : Union Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Arun Jaitley on November 5, 2018, said procurement, based on the principles of fairness, transparency and public interest, will protect the revenue of the State and make sure that they are used for optimal purpose. Jaitley was delivering the Keynote Address at the National Conference on Public Procurement & Competition Law in New Delhi.

Talking about the roadmap for future, Jaitley stated that India needs to look at global models and visualise how to deal with emerging situations. Jaitley stated that public procurement being a very large part of the country’s GDP, the State is entitled to have the best price and quality and this also applies to all Statutory Institutions.

Jaitley said that there are areas in which tender bids can be global while in some areas, domestic development is desirable, especially in case of the service sector in which the effective competition needs to be developed within the country itself. He said that with expansion of the economy, India’s market expansion is going to have exponential growth and therefore, the role of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) as a Regulator will also expand with time.

CCI Chairperson Sudhir Mital said that Free, Fair and Effective Procurement can reduce cost of delivery, free resources and make surpluses available, make the PSUs more competitive and allow the Public Sector to grow. He emphasised on the need for having a Pro-Competitive Procurement Systems that can reduce the scope of anti-competitive behaviour by the bidders. He also announced that the CCI is in process of designing a Diagnostic Tool for public procurement agencies that would facilitate detection of bid rigging in public procurement as well as help design tenders which would promote fair competition.

Injeti Srinivas, Secretary, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, stated that given the sheer volume of public procurement in GDP, which accounts for more than 26% of GDP i.e. equivalent to around Rs 28 lakh crore, it has a significant influence on the economy’s performance. He said that Competitive Procurement could result in cost saving to the extent of around 20-30% that could have long term impact on the economy.

Junaid Kamal Ahmad, World Bank’s India Country Director announced that contracting with the Government will be one of the new indicators to be considered by the World Bank in the next round of their Ease of Doing Business ranking. He stressed that improving competition in Public Procurement and e-procurement would facilitate market participation, expand business opportunities for a larger number of players and reduce their processing cost. He stated that India has adopted best global practices in Government e-marketplace which could be emulated by other developing nations, according to a PIB release.

The conference was organised by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) in partnership with the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA), a think tank under the aegis of Ministry of Corporate Affairs.