Mumbai : The State government has decided that the process of competitive bidding will have to be followed for all the purchases over Rs 50 lakh and also brought most of the local self government bodies and government undertakings under the ambit of this decision putting more restrictions on the rate contract method for government purchases.
A Government Resolution has been promulgated on June 30 in this regard.
The finance ministry has also appointed a working group of five secretaries to implement various measures regarding effectiveness and transparency in government purchase.
“The decision has been made as part of implementing the promises made in the ‘White Paper’ on state finances that had been released during the budget session of the assembly,” finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar told FPJ. The GR in this regard was promulgated on Wednesday, he said.
“To ensure strict financial discipline, the government resolution (GR) dated April 17 has been enhanced and a new GR was promulgated on June 30,” Mungantiwar said.
“The GR aims at enforcing strict discipline in all kinds of government purchases. In the previous GR dated April 17, we had said that all purchases over Rs 1 crore must be made through competitive bidding and not thorugh the rate contract method. Now, we have brought down the limit to Rs 50 lakh,” the minister said.
Now onwards, all the purchases over Rs 50 lakh will have to follow the competitive bidding method. The state-level departments will have to follow the rule for all purchases over Rs 2 crore and all these provisions would be applicable for purchases in zilla parishads (ZP), municipal corporations, councils and all government undertakings, the GR says.
The GR also says that whenever it is not possible to follow the competitive bidding process and rate contract is the only way available, a prior nod from the finance and the planning department is a must. Whenever the purchase is to be made over the year and exceed the limit of Rs 5 crore, it has to be made through the competitive bidding method, the GR says.
The working group under principal secretary of finance department (expenditure) has ACS (IT) of the general administration department and principal secretaries of industries, tribal welfare and finance (fiscal planning) departments as members on it and is expected to implement the measures to instil transparency in the government purchases.
