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Karnataka Court Demands E-Procurement Overhaul
8 Jan
Summary
- High Court orders tech overhaul of e-procurement.
- Automation and real-time verification mandated.
- Systemic fraud in public works bids to be eliminated.
The High Court of Karnataka has ordered a significant technological upgrade to the state's e-procurement infrastructure to combat systemic fraud in public works bids. The court directed the implementation of high-level automation and real-time verification processes for all tender documents submitted through the e-procurement portal.
This mandate includes establishing Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to enable automatic verification of bidder documents against various government databases. The court highlighted that such fraudulent practices, including submission of fabricated licenses and inflated work orders, have caused substantial losses to the public exchequer and damaged the integrity of the bidding system.
Further, the court stipulated that the e-procurement portal should feature a real-time analytics dashboard for concerned authorities to track fraud frequency and violator patterns. A sanitized version of this dashboard will be published quarterly to enhance transparency and deter future malpractices.
