Para 160 — WORKS_MANUAL

3.4 Electronic Procurement (e-Procurement) Rule 160 of GFR 2017 makes it mandatory for Ministries/ Departments to receive all bids through e-procurement portals in respect of all procurements. Ministries/ Departments which do not have a large volume of procurement or carry out procurements required only for dayto-day running of offices and al so have not initiated e-procurement through any other solution provided so far, may use e-procurement solution developed by NIC i.e. Central Public Procurement Portal (CPPP).F Other Ministries/ Departments may either use CPPP or engage any other service provider following due process. There are other service providers in Public Sector (e.g. MSTC) and Private sector which can be utilized for e-Procurement. In individual case where national security and strategic considerations demands confidentiality, Ministries/ Departments may exempt such cases from e-procurement after seeking approval of concerned Secretary and with concurrence of Financial Advisers. In case of tenders floated by Indian Missions Abroad, Competent Authority to decide the tender may exempt such case from e-procurement as the bidders may face problems in obtaining digital signatures which is pre-requisite for bidding. Details about the process of e-procurement are available from the service providers. Appendix 3 also gives such generic details of the e-Procurement process. The e-procurement solutions meet all the requirements notified by Department of Information Technology under the Guidelines for compliances to Quality requirements of e-procurement systems published on the e-Governance Standards Portal (http://egovstandards.gov.in)