Optimizing Medical Store Procurement Through GeM: Current Practices and Strategic Recommendations

Abstract

The Government e-Marketplace (GeM) was established on August 9, 2016, to serve as a streamlined, transparent, and cos t-effective online platform for public procurement in India. For the healthcare sector, particularly government medical stores, GeM represents a vital tool for ensuring the timely and efficient acquisition of pharmaceuticals and related supplies. By minimizing the human transactional interface, the platform serves as a critical effort to curb corruption. An effort to analyze the utilization of GeM for the procurement of medicines and pharmaceuticals in medical stores of public healthcare facilities has been made to find out the effectiveness, loopholes and improving the procurement system. The study details GeM’s core functionalities, including its diverse procurement options (e.g., direct purchase, e-bidding, reverse auction, and custom bids) and its robust accountability mechanisms (e.g., buyer/seller rating systems and integrated incident management). Analysis of performance data for medical procurement in the financial years (FY) 2023–24 and 2024–25 reveals a significant improvement in order materialization rates, both by volume (from 80.5% to 86.6%) and by value (from 66% to 73%). Several new functionalities in the GeM bid including option for BoQ bidding with multiple evaluation methods (item-wise, group-wise, or total value-wise); the provision for buyers to upload a detailed Technical Evaluation Report for better record-keeping; and the mandatory Country of Origin information for all product listings to promote local procurement which facilitate more customized and data-driven bidding processes have been discussed. The findings confirm that GeM is successfully driving procurement efficiency. Strategic recommendations focus on mitigating systemic payment delays and enhancing the utilization of specialized bidding options to further optimize the acquisition of essential pharmaceuticals.