The Kerala government is working with Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology (MAIT) for developing an IT procurement policy for the State.

The new policy aims to bring in greater transparency in IT procurement and much higher vendor participation, according to PH Kurian, Principal Secretary-Industries and IT, Kerala.

Workshop

Kurian said this while delivering the keynote address at a workshop on ‘Good procurement practices for IT’ hosted by MAIT in association with the Department of IT.

He stressed on the need for formulating vendor-neutral specifications so that tenders are not biased towards any particular manufacturer. Procurement procedures for IT goods and services need to be standardised, he said.

“There is a great potential for small and medium-sized companies in government procurement. We should try and bring in innovative procurement practices such as the Swiss Challenge process in software procurement, which is part of the approved IT Policy. This will help government to get quality products in least possible time,” he added.

Best practices

The workshop laid emphasis on the need for adoption of best practices for IT procurement by government and semi-government organisations.

More than 150 officers from different government departments attended the event and sought to gain insights on IT procurement procedures being followed in the IT industry.

Prominent speakers included K Mohammed Y Safirulla, Director, Kerala State IT Mission; Anwar Shirpurwala, Executive Director, MAIT, and Ankur Malhotra, Accenture.

Shirpurwala said that the workshop was conducted with a purpose to interact with the state government officials and share good practices of procurement with respect to e-governance projects.

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