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New Delhi: ONGC has committed to spending around Rs. 30,000 crores on procurement in Financial Year 2021-22. Major upcoming business opportunities with ONGC were presented at a special online Business Partners’ Meet, titled ‘Building Bridges in ONGC’s Supply Chain: Aatmanirbhar Bharat: Prosperous India’ on 3rd July 2021 to enhance transparency and streamline contracting practices.
The interaction, headed by CMD Subhash Kumar, also witnessed the presence of Director (HR) Dr. Alka Mittal, Director (Exploration) and Director (Offshore) (Additional Charge) RK Srivastava, Director (T&FS) in-charge MM Services Om Prakash Singh, Director (Onshore) Anurag Sharma and senior executives of ONGC.
Mr. Kumar, along with ONGC’s Directors and Key Executives, interacted with the company’s Business Partners and took in their suggestions in order to further improve and simplify procedural steps involved in the company’s procurement process. At the heart of its endeavors are enhanced transparency and streamlined contracting practices, which will enable the promotion of a business-friendly environment for ONGC’s Business Partners. The move also underlines the company’s increasing efforts towards promoting and supporting local businesses in every way possible.
ONGC is able to achieve its targets year after year because of the timely and committed support from its vendors, and the top management of ONGC is committed to look at the feedback received from its business partners and make whatever changes needed; even if it requires interventions/support from the ministry/government.
CMD Shubhash Kumar also assured that ONGC will increase the frequency of these meets ‘so we can listen to each other more frequently and share ideas’.
Talking about the need to change with times, the CMD said that we are fairly responsive to whatever developments are taking place, but we need to be more responsive to the dynamic change in our business ecosystem. “Electronic platforms will become more and more dominant like GeM and IGX. We, in ONGC, are implementing vital changes in the way we interact with business partners. We would reduce human intervention but try to keep the human touch in our processes.” He said that in Mumbai, ONGC is receiving 80 to 90 percent invoices in electronic form and added that we will soon touch the 100 percent mark.
“We also remain committed to supporting Startups and MSMEs. Ease of doing business is also a very important factor.”
Speaking about the uninterrupted work done by business partners despite the COVID-19 challenges, Mr. Kumar said “COVID-19 is around, it has been around and it will continue to be around. Unfortunately, the predictions suggest that COVID-19 will continue. Some predictions suggest that the situation would be as serious as or a shade worse than what we have faced recently.” We would like to register that ONGC is in the midst of executing a massive investment program for which we need your committed support.
Mr. Singh noted that the objectives of the meet were to:
2. Promote localization and Aatmanirbhar Bharat initiatives
3. Maximize procurement through GeM portal
4. Maximize value of procurement
5. Create a business environment for both – Business Partners and ONGC
6. Improve competitiveness
7. Reduce delays and minimize disputes
8. Keep environment and sustainability goals in focus
9. Maintain high standards of transparency, ethics, and conduct
Mr. Singh said that ONGC envisages procurement of more than Rs 31,000 crore this fiscal. “This includes over Rs 15,500 crore for LSTK projects, Rs 13,500 crore for Services, and around Rs 2,200 Crore for materials.”
“World-over, economies are opening up after COVID-19 pandemic setback. The E&P sector is showing signs of recovery. Therefore, it is an opportune time for global and domestic industries to collaborate participate and work together. Path-breaking initiatives have been taken by the Government of India as well as ONGC highlighting the importance of the growing economy, infrastructure and technology-based systems.”
As per the directives of the Government of India, ONGC has taken many initiatives like inviting only domestic tenders up to Rs 200 crore, Force Majeure applicability due to COVID-19, policies on domestically manufactured steel and Make in India, and many more, Mr. Singh said. He also said that GeM has put the procurement process on fast track. “From the inception of GeM, ONGC has carried out procurement of more than Rs 1,000 crore with more than 6,000 orders with more than 3,600 vendors. In the current fiscal till 30 June, GeM procurement has been around Rs 600 crore.” He urged all local vendors to quickly onboard the GeM portal and be part of this quick and transparent procurement process.
ONGC will not leave any stone unturned to meet the expectations of our business partners to create a win-win environment. Lastly, he urged all to adhere to all safety Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in letter and spirit to ensure safe business.
CGM (MM) – Head Corporate Vendor Management Cell, Corporate MM Services Nikhil Gaur, hosting the meet, thanked Director (T&FS) for his highly encouraging and motivating words and expressed hope that business partners have taken due note of the advice and guidance given by the Director.
Three separate presentations were made during the interaction, which was attended by around 400 participants. Apart from vendors, the online event was attended by respective Key Executives, In-charges of MM, Finance, and other important stakeholders from ONGC work centers. The first presentation on ‘Latest Policy Initiatives by ONGC’ was delivered by M (MM) – PMC, Corporate MM Aditya Singhal.
The various initiatives taken up by ONGC and the Government of India in the recent past regarding the tender process were discussed during the presentation including Vendor Invoice Management System (VIMS), New Development Order Policy, relaxation for startups, paperless tenders, Lakshya Bharat and GeM Portal. The expectations of ONGC from its business partners to ensure fast-track tender processing were also shared during this presentation.
The second presentation on ‘Vendor Invoice Management Systems (VIMS)’ by Executive Engineer (E&T) – ICE Team Saurabh Gupta included a live demo on the use of the portal by vendors.
The third presentation on ‘Upcoming Business Prospects – Opportunities & New Projects within ONGC’ was delivered by GM (M) – P&E – Corporate MM DP Singh. Major upcoming tenders including those for material, services & LSTK, etc were discussed during this presentation.
Over 200 suggestions/feedbacks were received from business partners ahead of the meet. Around 50 important policy perspective-related feedbacks were identified for deliberations during the interaction. The Presentation on “Feedback received from Business Partners” was delivered by DGM (MM), PMC, Corporate MM Neelesh Pant. The suggestions/feedbacks were related to GeM, bid evaluation, price evaluation, execution, approval of the document, GST, change in law, force majeure, payment, etc.
Lastly, an open-house discussion was held with business partners, during which various suggestions were given by vendors for improvement in the tender process, etc.
The session was adroitly handled by ED – Chief MM Services AP Tripathi, who responded to all the questions and suggestions of business partners and presented ONGC’s perspectives. Many of the suggestions were taken up for further consideration.
The CMD, after interacting with the vendors, tossed the idea to float two dedicated email IDs to receive feedback on policy and complaints related to payment issues respectively. He said there is always a need to upgrade policies as times change. Mr. Kumar also assured to interact with the vendors again soon.
In the end, Director (T&FS) thanked everyone for their active participation in the interaction.
