Help desk for e-procurement

 
Briefing newspersons after participating in a workshop on ‘e-procurement for contractors and officers’ organised by the Centre for e-governance, Sridhar said the help desk equipped with technical staff, would be on the lines of BangaloreOne. “It will be put in place in a week or ten days,” he said.

He said that four states had already approached Karnataka for assistance in implementing such a system in their government departments.

In Karnataka 25 government organisations  had already utilised the e-system when calling for contracts, Sridhar said. He said that contracts worth Rs 200 crore had been called for using the e-procurement method last year and it was expected to touch Rs 300 crore this year.

Home Department Additional Chief Secretary A K M Nayak called for amending the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurement Act, 1999  to make e-procurement compulsory in the State. 

Economic advisor to the Chief Minister Dr K V Raju said the government planned to use the e-system to call for tenders for the ambitious project of laying of roads for 10,000 kms.

Karnataka Contractors Association Vice-President R V Swamy urged the government to provide grant for carrying out the projects instead of giving only 30 per cent of the fund as being done now.