Congress alleges graft in working of government’s procurement portal

New Delhi, April 22 (IANS) The Congress on Friday alleged massive corruption in functioning of the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) portal, launched by the NDA government for procurement of both products and services.

Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said the allegations of corruption were raised by none other than some Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders.

"One union minister and several BJP MPs have written a letter to Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman complaining of corruption in the operation of GeM. These include union minister Fagan Singh Kulaste and some BJP MPs," said Surjewala.

"In their letters, the BJP MPs have complained of irregularities in the functioning of GeM, causing a huge loss to the exchequer. The corruption could run into hundreds of crores," he added.

Surjewala also said that the MPs had complained that the rates of a few commodities sold on the portal were more than the contract rates.

"If there is no transparency in the sale of commodities through GeM, then why was the portal launched by the government," he asked.