Govt engg colleges, ITIs to buy for labs via e-procurement

CHENNAI: To ensure transparency, all the equipment for government and government aided engineering and polytechnics will be procured only through new e-commerce system.

Accordingly, the Directorate of Technical Education (DOTE) has issued new guidelines to the management of the colleges besides providing training to the heads of the institutions.

A senior official from DOTE told DT Next that hereinafter all the government and government aided engineering colleges should purchase even small items like lab equipment through the new e-platform.

“Modification would be done in the current government’s tender system,” he said adding “the new system would help the managements of all the colleges to purchase their required equipment.”

Stating that a comprehensive physical training will be given to the all the heads of the colleges, the official said webinars will also be organised to give training for college management staff, who were situated in far flung areas of the state.

The official said unlike the old practice of depositing cheques, the earnest money deposit will also be transferred online so that all the bidding process will be transparent.

With regard to the benefits of new e-procurement system, the official said the new system will mitigate procurement risks and it will ensure tracking of underperforming and poor suppliers.

Claiming that a strong e-procurement plan can help to remove inefficiency that can raise costs, the official said, “the new system will also ensure that there will not be any invoice delays and duplicate payments and it will also remove approval bottlenecks.”

“The new system of e-procurement will start from this April,” he said adding, “a database will also be created to keep track of all the procurement.”

The senior official pointed out that a monthly or quarterly report will be generated by each college and would be submitted to the DOTE for reference. “There will also be continuous review meeting about the performance of the new e-procurement system,” he added.