Skill Development for eGovernance – On track for transparent and efficient delivery – Public Works Department , Government of Uttar Pradesh

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Case Study

Objective

UPPWD’s governance initiatives leveraging technology for online e Management Book, Bid Capacity Evaluation through Prahari and Chanakya Software for tracking statewide status of all payments in real time are pioneering efforts not just in the State but also nationally. Facilitating the process of e-Tendering, encouraging the people to digitalise their tenders, which help to maintain the proper records of the companies involved in tenders. The initiative is bringing about responsive and transparent governance and honing the skills for smooth transition without disrupting the flow.

Problems Faced

Contractors bid at multiple places. It was impossible to know work in hand even within the department. This would give undue advantage to contractors to undertake work more than their existing bid capacity and resulted in poor execution of work as resources could not be used properly. Another challenge was field level pulls and pressures from vested interests to manipulate the bidding process. Also, there was wide variation in decisions by the field officers on various parameters of the bid. PWD used to face allegations about power of field officers in influencing the technical bid evaluation.

The reviewers got bogged down and took long time to review tender form details and pass them to the next reviewer. Therefore, it was essential to eliminate such bottlenecks to ensure the approval chain does not get blocked. Keeping all these things in mind Prahari (Bid Capacity Evaluation System) and Chanakya were made easy to use.

Solutions

Skill development of office staff to switch-over from conventional system to tech-driven system was deftly dealt with. Continuous training sessions, on-site technical support, feedback based improvement in system to make it in-tune with the departmental practices earned universal acceptance in the department.

Bid Capacity Evaluation System or Prahari was introduced to carry out Realtime Dynamic Bid Capacity calculation in transparent and efficient manner. The system allows uniformity of evaluation across all tenders with elimination of all discretionary powers. Within a short time, thus system has earned a universal acceptance by all contractors. Complaints related to tender evaluations have dropped to almost nil since its implementation.

In order to further the cause of e-Governance across different stakeholder departments, the State Government has mandated implementation of Geographical Information System based Road Information System called Srishti.

Outcomes

The difficulties faced by the concerned people while receiving tender forms through the existing e-tendering software were eliminated by Prahari. The tender forms received through Prahari were easy to evaluate and analyse as Prahari itself was capable of doing it. Prahari eliminated all the loopholes and short comings, found in the technical verification of the documents. In case of any shortcoming or any sort of technical error at any end, there is the provision of providing a quick solution along with the appointment of High Power Committee.

The Public Work Department in 75 districts of the state has undertaken this initiative to increase the efficiency of e-Tendering. Chanakya and Prahari have been put into the use throughout the state which leads to a fruitful feedback from the users.

For more information, please contact:
Mr Nitin Ramesh Gokarn, Principal Secretary at pspwd208@gmail.com

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