E-public procurement approach for implementation on Indian railways

Abstract

E-Public Procurement is being looked as a tool for increasing efficiencies, reducing costs and increasing transparencies. In the context of Indian Railways, the need to cut down the costs is even more urgent given its poor financial health and increasing competition. Initiative has been taken by Indian Railways towards implementing eprocurement system. However, in implementing the e-procurement system it has to take number of decisions as to which model to choose, which format to adopt and which items to procure through the web. Various available models have been compared and a hybrid model is suggested for e-procurement keeping in view the integrated vision for later up scaling. A framework based on the purchasing portfolio models has been developed to identify the items in to different categories and appropriate auction formats for these categories have been suggested. The details as to what rules to follow and what valuation mechanism to use in addition to addressing various pitfalls of the usual auction design have been addressed within the specific regulatory constraints of Indian Railways. The process-stake holder analysis has been used to identify the weaknesses of the present system and have been taken in to consideration while suggesting the auction design.