Strict Conditions…
(1) The purchases finalized by the Committee shall be only in case of extreme need on emergency basis.
(ii) The mandate of the Committee is to ensure the procurement of the emergency requirement only for the purpose of ensuring proper healthcare to those who are adversely affected by the pandemic. (iii) The assessment for the procurement must be done in a transparent manner and the Committee must ensure that the procurement should not be in excess of the immediate requirements.
(iv) The Orders issued till date by the erstwhile Joint Purchase Committee may be honored.
* Govt reconstitutes Joint purchase committee with Finance dept representation
* JPC validity only for a week with strict conditions of purchases only in extreme situation
Goemkarponn desk
PANAJI: Following several scams and controversies with regards the purchases of medical equipment and medicines for COVID19 treatment by the earlier Joint Purchase Committee the State Government has re-constituted the Joint Purchase Committee for procurement of emergency purchases of COVID related medicines and other materials for Hospitals and testing, i
The Government had constituted a Joint Purchase Committee during COVID-19 pandemic to ensure timely procurement of critical medicines and infrastructure as required for handling the pandemic situation. This system was put in place with the approval of the Cabinet.
However, as there was decrease in the number of COVID cases and the situation improved considerably, need was felt for revisiting the decision and the Government had approved to dismantle the above Joint Purchase Committee as it had outlived its utility and to follow the normal procedure as per GFR 142-162 and only in case of exigency seek specific waiver as and when required with justification and prior concurrence of the Finance Department.
New Committee…
The new JPC has been constituted only for a week i.e 30/06/2021 under the chairmanship Dean, Goa Medical College.
However, there is a catch here, the Finance department was bypassed in the earlier JPC but this time around the Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant has appointed the Additional Secretary (Finance) as the Vice Chairman, so that all purchases go through scrutiny of finance department.
Director of Health Services, Joint Director of Accounts Directorate of Health Services, Joint Director of Accounts Goa Medical College, Assistant Accounts Officer, Directorate of Health Services, Assistant Accounts Officer Goa Medical College are the members while Dy. Director (Public Health) Directorate of Health Services will be the Member Secretary.
As per the mandate of the Cabinet the above Committee shall remain operational only till 30/06/2021, and the same shall be subject to the conditions, and thereafter the normal process, as laid down in the General Financial Rules, shall be ensured:
It is pertinent to note here that the earlier committee had no representation from Finance department and sources reveal that it included close confidante’s of Health Minister Vishwajit Rane like his OSD Dr Rajnanda Desai.
Scrapping the earlier JPC, the government had said “the COVID-19 has subsided to a larger extent, Dean of Goa Medical College and Director of Health Services are hereby strictly directed to go for limited tender/open tender/e-tender as the case may be on GeM portal only after properly assessing the quantity required by following due process and avoid floating piecemeal limited tender with the accurate position of the funds availability”.
It further said that In case where the items are not available on GeM, prior approval of the Finance Department shall be obtained for floating the tender outside GeM portal.
“The above instructions shall be followed scrupulously and deviation from the same shall be viewed seriously. This issues with the approval of the Hon. Chief Minister,” it stated.
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