Friday 20 March 2020

Circle Union writes to Chief PMG on problems in purchase of essential items through GeM Portal



No. P3NFPE-Odisha/08 - 03/2020
Dated at Bhubaneswar the 19th March, 2020
To
Col. Jaleswar Kanhar, IPoS
The Chief Postmaster General
Odisha Circle, Bhubaneswar – 751 001

Sub:- Problems in purchase of essential items through GeM Portal - reg

Respected Sir,
            As brought to the notice of this Circle Union, the following issues are confronted by the Divisional Heads while purchasing the required items through GeM Portal.

1.    All the required items are not available in GeM Portal viz. latest models of Note Counting Machines, Currency Verifiers, and Printers.

2.    Most of the sellers are declining to deliver heavy items like printers and racks, almirahs etc.  either due to remote area or for the area has not been added to their delivery zone.

3.    It is found very difficult to enroll new local sellers with whom the required items are available to GeM portal since authorization from the OEM is required for the purpose and no manufacturer is ready to authorize during the month of March.

4.    After order is placed, we have to wait for 120 hours (5 days) for confirmation and it is not sure that the seller will accept the order or not.  If the seller does not accept the order, it is mandatory for us to wait 120 hours, before placing another order for same. 

5.    If the order is accepted, delivery of the ordered item(s) will take approximately 15 days. But due to last minute approval and we have only 10 working days in hand in this March, all the approved items may not be purchased and if purchased, the bills may not be sanctioned in time. 

6.    Product added to cart limit is 10 days only within which approval from the competent authority is necessary. But as witnessed, necessary approval is not being given within the above limit period. As a result, the product added to the cart product is being deleted creating additional trouble for purchase inviting a situation that the particular product(s) will not be available in the cart as the price may vary after the product is removed from cart.

7.    If the purchase amount exceeds Rs.25000.00, GeM makes it mandatory for comparing product(s) with 3 other sellers. But it is not automatically done. Moreover, product(s) of same specification is not available with 03 other separate sellers.

8.    Services like installation, buy-back etc are not available in time against the items purchased under GeM portal. Three Aqua Guard water filters purchased by SSPOs, Bhubaneswar took more than a month for installation and though installed last week, no installation report has yet been received for availing the facilities within the warranty / guarantee period.

9.    Rates of the products to be purchased through GeM portal always remain higher than the same product available locally. Illustratively, it can be said that the Samsung (M2830W) compatible printer cartridge which costs around Rs.1700.00 in local market, it available at a cost of Rs.2800.00 in GeM portal. Similarly, steel racks which cost Rs.1700.00 in the local marker are available in GeM portal at a cost of Rs.3500.00.

10. In addition, most of the staff members especially working in the Divisional Offices are not acquainted with the process of purchasing items through GeM portal since not trained at all.

            Under the circumstance, due to confrontation of the above issues to purchase the required products through GeM portal, we may not be able to exhaust the funds now available under different heads with the Divisional / Unit heads by 31.03.2020 since we have only 10 working days left. As per information available with us, some Divisional heads like Phulbani, Mayurbhanj etc. have adequate funds for purchase of the items they need, but have seriously failed to do so due to difficulties faced by them under GeM portal.

Therefore, we would like to request for issuing necessary orders to all the Regional / Divisional / Unit heads to adopt other modes of purchase like LPC etc to exhaust the available funds before 31.03.2020.

An early action in this regard is sincerely requested.

Awaiting your kind response Sir.

          With regards.
Yours faithfully,
B SAMAL
(Bruhaspati Samal)
Circle Secretary


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