'Strong' legal, punitive actions against fraudulent activities on GeM portal, says Union Minister Piyush Goyal

New Delhi: Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal has called for taking “strong” legal and punitive actions against buyers and suppliers, registered on the public procurement portal GeM, who indulge in fraudulent activities.

The Government e-Marketplace (GeM) portal was launched on 9 August, 2016, for online purchases of goods and services by all the central government ministries and departments.

While reviewing the progress of the platform, the minister also asked for addition of features to further accelerate delivery timelines.

“GeM’s initiatives for tight monitoring and anomaly detection in procurement, including use of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI-ML) to detect and report potential collusion and fraud were reviewed… (the minister) suggested strong legal and punitive actions against buyers and suppliers against such activities,” an official statement said on Sunday.

In addition to detecting anomalies, GeM also plans to use AI-ML to make proactive feature simplifications and product suggestions to buyers to ensure informed decision making and savings in public spendings, it added.

Significant technical upgrades have been planned by GeM to enable cutting edge use cases and improve user experience on the platform, the statement said.

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