As per Rule 149 of the GFR-2017, procurement of Goods and Services by Ministries/ Departments of Central Government has been made mandatory for Goods or Services available on GeM.

GeM is an online end to end procurement portal. All the activities from registration of Buyers and Sellers to purchase and even payment to the Sellers through Public Financial Management Service are completely online. Three methods of procurement are followed as per Rule 149 of GFR-2017. The prices listed by any seller are visible to all the Registered Buyers and Sellers. Moreover, to promote transparency, the Bidding and Reverse Auction notices are sent to all the Sellers who are available for that product on GeM through email/SMS and notice on the homepage of GeM. All the contracts are available in public domain. The complete Audit trail is available for viewing at any time.

GeM is not mandatory for State Governments. It is left to their discretion to procure through GeM. However, some State Government organizations are making procurement through GeM viz Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Telangana, Odisha, Maharashtra, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Tripura, Haryana and Uttarakhand.

GeM, being a technology driven platform, has better functionality and capability to centrally drive and monitor compliance of various Government policies towards promotion of domestic manufacturers, in public procurement.

This information was given by the Commerce and Industry Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.

Mandatory GeM procurement: central ministries must purchase listed goods and services via the government e-market to ensure transparency. Rule 149 of the Government Financial Rules, 2017 mandates that Central Government ministries and departments procure goods and services available on the Government e-Marketplace (GeM), an online portal that handles registration, procurement methods, contracting and payments electronically; seller prices are visible to registered users, bidding and reverse-auction notices are circulated to eligible sellers, contracts are publicly accessible, and a full audit trail is maintained to promote transparency.