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With the objective of professionalizing and building up the capacities of Officials involved in Procurement Management, World Bank has developed the Certificate Program in Public Procurement (CPPP), which is first ever free Procurement Certificate delivered as Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). Various Organizations like BEL are part of the Vigilance Study Circle (VSC), Bangalore. VSC Bangalore has encouraged the member organizations for taking up the World Bank’s “Certificate Programme in Public Procurement”. The Program enables the participants to get an overview of Public Procurement and understand the rationale behind Public Procurement decisions.
BEL received its first communication about CPPP through Vigilance Study Circle, Bangalore. CVO / BEL has examined the contents of the program and noted that the course is suited for BEL. The Public procurement in BEL is to the tune of around Rs. 6000 Crores annually, comprising about 60% of the total cost of Production in the Company. Further during the investigation of Complaints and Source information, CVO/BEL observed that most of lapses and violation are observed due to lack of awareness on the procedural aspects involved in Public Procurement and the Government guidelines relating to Public Procurement. CVO observed that CPPP helps the employees working in Procurement and related activities to understand the processes involved in Public Procurement and to comply with the Government guidelines.
As per the directives of CVO, Corporate Vigilance has issued a letter on 26.11.2014 advising all the Unit / SBU Heads to make use of this learning Opportunity for the benefit of the Organisation. By 31.12.2014 the no. of enrolments from across the company crossed 175. The General Manager, Panchkula Unit has initiated a special drive and as a result the employees of Panchkula posted in Purchase, Sub Contract and Finance executives completed the course with majority of them secured distinction. From then on the momentum picked up. GM(PK) set an internal target on 01.07.2015 for all 32 managers to complete the course by 31.07.2015. On 07.07.2015, due to large no. of enrolments (928) and completions (126) Bangalore Vigilance Study Circle won the ‘Best Chapter Award’ at Vigilance Study Circle, Hyderabad and the award was given by CVC. Out of the 126 completions BEL contribution was 75 (74 PK +1 T&BS).
By 20.07.2015, 62executives of BEL Panchkula successfully completed the course and GM PK then increased the target to 100 executives. The participants mentioned that CPPP was a good and informative course and improved the knowledge base for BEL and thanked the management for the initiative and for percolating the course at all levels. Feedback was that the program is worth learning and an asset to everybody whosoever does it. On 18.08.2015 Chair Person VSC, Bangalore, wrote to CMD-BEL mentioning that BEL had outpaced others in the number of Certified learners. It was also informed that as a mark of appreciation, names of all the Certified Learners would be featured in the VSC souvenir. CVO issued another letter on 03.12.2015 requesting all the Unit / SBU Heads to make CPPP mandatory for all the executives posted in Purchase, allied functions and Finance.
Corporate Vigilance reiterated the relevance of CPPP for BEL and benefits we can derive out of it in various departmental meetings and directed all the Unit/SBU heads to make this program mandatory for all executives. All the Unit / SBU Heads started taking up the initiative and CPPP course was added as an agenda point in their regular review meetings. All the SBU/Unit Heads started to give thrust for completion of the program. They encouraged the executives to study and take up the assessment after the regular Office hours either at home or in Office. Infrastructure facilities were exclusively extended at the Offices and this gave a tremendous impetus to the program. Unit / SBU Heads issued circulars from HR asking all the executives and Non executives working in Procurement Functions to take up the course. By end December, 256 Officers had completed the course and 200 were from Panchkula Unit alone.
The candidates were given facility to learn and write the test from the office after Office hours. Across units because of large number of registrations additional computers were earmarked for the purpose where executives would study and take up assessments away from their work spot. The facility was extended to increase the pace of learning and taking the exams. The offline course material in the form of text was uploaded on Company’s intranet for easy access and was of great help in motivating the employees.Unit / SBU heads started monitoring the progress and HR kept tracking the individual efforts being made. Once the Senior Officers were covered, it was made compulsory for Managers and then gradually to all the executives and later to all interested non executives also. For the slow performers, separate training sessions were held at all the Units and SBUs.
By end January 2016, 1203 employees had completed the course. By end February 2016, 2520 employees of BEL had successfully completed the CPPP course.This acheivement of BEL was acknowledged during the Meeting of CVOs of all DPSUs and OFB held at MOD Delhi on 29/02/2016. The meeting was chaired by Secretary(Defence Production) MOD.By end March 2016, 2678 employees of BEL had successfully completed the CPPP course. In addition 163 employees had completed the CPCM course as well. By end April 2016, 2853 employees of BEL had successfully completed the CPPP course. In addition 171 employees had completed the CPCM course as well.
During the Global Procurement Summit 2016 held at India Habitat Centre Delhi on 21-22 Apr 2016, the speakers from World Bank greatly appreciated the contribution made by CVO BEL in steering this program in BEL and making it a success story.As per the data provided by the World Bank, as on date 42000 have enrolled for CPPP Course from across 190 countries. About 13000 have successfully completed the course. In BEL alone, about 3041 employees have successfully completed the CPPP course till 31stMarch 2017, which is about 23% of the completions Worldwide. This is indeed a great achievement.
Corporate Vigilance has recommended to the BEL Management to consider posting Officers in Purchase / Sub-Contract departments who have cleared CPPP with distinction. This capacity building exercise has helped BEL to post competent officers in procurement departments leading to increase in efficiency and effectiveness.
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The public sector is one of the biggest purchasers of goods & services in the economy. The Government of India acknowledges that automating procurement process using electronic tools/techniques and enabling opportunities to suppliers fully supports the objective of non‐discrimination, fair & open competition. E-Procurement is identified as a mission mode project under national e-Governance plan. The objective is to transform public sector purchase activity from labor intensive paper based to efficient e-Procurement process. Electronic Procurement (e-Procurement) is the use of Information and Communication Technology (specially the Internet) by the buyer (in this case Government) in conducting their procurement processes with supplier for the acquisition of goods (supplies), works and services. Use of Information Technology promotes the aims of open, non‐discriminatory and efficient government procurement through transparent procedures. It is the technology‐enabled acquisition of goods and services, required by an organization, at the best value obtainable in the most efficient manner possible.
Every year approximately 3.5 Lacs Purchase Requisitions (PRs) are processed across BEL for procurement of material through SRM. All the PRs are processed in SAP and RFQs are created based on source list. When users opt for automatic process,System determines the common vendors for the list of items and optimum no of bids are generated by system. This complete process earlier done manually and used to take few Hrs but now through system it is just a click of a key. Once RFQ is generated in system Bids are created for these RFQS. In SRM system Users have to publish the bids using their Digital Signatures. On vendor side the major pain point was to navigate through 3-4 tabs for each item for submitting the response. If there are 60 items in a bid, 240 times vendor has to navigate to submit the response. It was very time consuming and cumbersome process. In the new process, Vendors have been facilitated by providing adobe forms download option. Once it is downloaded vendor can fill the quote offline. Once the bid is ready vendors have to log on to SRM system and upload the response through Adobe. It has reduced the response time to almost zero which earlier used to be in Hrs. Once bids are opened by purchasers system generates comparative statement. In comparative statement, an option is provided to create Purchase orders automatically to L1 vendors. It has reduced the Purchase Orders creation time to almost zero. Option is provided to make auto procurement without any manual intervention other than publishing the bid where Digital Signatures are required. In that case users have to just select the PRs and complete process up to PO creation will be without any purchaser involvement. Along with automation of Procurement process real-time information system is built in system. Following information are sent to vendors registered mail ids:
The above process is not only ensured error free procurement but it also reduced procurement process cycle time from Hrs to minutes. Finally it has reduced overall cycle time of procurement by half. Vendor satisfaction level has gone up.
Click here for SRM Video
Paper-based information is an asset in every organization, but only if the information can be retrieved at minimum possible time and made available for use at the right time and the right place. Records and Files are a ‘snapshot’ of an action or event. To serve their purpose in providing reliable evidence for greater accountability, records in both paper and electronic form must be accurate, complete, and comprehensive.
Stacks of dusty files, bulging at the seams, piled up haphazardly on tables. This is what immediately comes to mind when one thinks of a typical Government Department or Public sector companies, and other large organizations which execute projects after detailed reviews at various levels and with approvals from the competent authority. These approvals were taken in the written format through opening a file for an activity and circulating the file among the different levels of authority who are authorized to review the proposal and give their concurrence and approval through their recordings in writing. This is leading to creation of more number of paper based files, its management, storage, preservation and retrieval.
The innovation in File Life Cycle Management was implemented on pilot scale with chosen sectors and departments. As on date File Life Cycle Management has reached the heights of culmination with 100% implementation across all sectors, SBUs and Units involving Officers from Deputy Engineers to Functional Directors, CVO and CMD, which is anunique achievement. This has resulted in “Transparent decision making leading to Organizational and Individual Integrity”. With the drive given by Vigilance and with the support extended by Top Management, the FLM concept which is implemented as Preventive and Proactive vigilance measure, helps the Organisation to achieve immense monetary and Non monetary benefits and drives the company towards complete transparency and implementation of its three pronged objectives of “Quality, Technology and Innovation”.
The initiative for designing and developing a comprehensive File Life Cycle Management came from the MoD’s instructions on having a “File Tracking System” as one of the Actionable Points on Preventive Vigilance for the year 2013-14. These instructions are based on the deliberations that has taken place in Annual Sectoral review meeting of CVC with the DPSUs and OFB held in September 2013, in which CVC emphasized the importance of File creation, preservation, tracking and retrieval to ensure transparency and accountability in the Organization. At Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), IT has been innovatively used for ensuring and transparency and fairness in the Systems and procedures followed in the Company and mitigate the corruption risks. Hence , BEL decided to go a step further and by developing a comprehensive File Life Cycle Management module in SAP System (instead of a File Tracking System) with a view to establish uniform standards in file management and to improve transparency and accountability.
File Life Cycle Management (FLM) is online creation of File Proposals in SAP for various purposes. It is a paperless process of creating files in SAP. The related and connected documents to the File proposals are attached to the relevant file proposals in the System. The approval process is also through System and linked to Financial Delegation / Sub Delegations of Powers. After the creating and approval process, the files are securely stored electronically in the System in a File cabinet. FLM facilitates complete Transparency and Accountability. The check list attached to the each file proposal in the system facilitates compliance of rules and procedures. The bulky paper files at BEL are being replaced by paperless files through a File Lifecycle Management (FLM) system. It encompasses all the processes like file creation, movement, tracking, noting, review and approval processes. With its simplified configuration, the solution provides easy modeling and implementation, in addition to providing protection and security for the files.
This system changed the culture of file movement and desk layout totally. The In tray and Out trays are replaced by laptops. Within a year of implementation, more than 1,20,000 files have been created and approved in the FLM system. There is no time lost in File collection, movement and delivery. In fact, it is reduced to zero. The file can be tracked and traced by anyone and from anywhere. BEL is spread across India and the central audit team has to move place to place for auditing. In FLM, the entire auditing and monitoring is happening from a centralized location. There is no more requirement of record rooms and other infrastructure to preserve the files, only server capacity is to be enhanced whenever additional capacity is required. Manpower engaged in file movement have been moved to other productive assignments. Greater accountability, compliance with statutory requirements and standardization across the organization are some of the add-on benefits. Time saved is approximately 40000 Hrs per annum and infrastructure requirements for file maintenance is reduced by approximately Rs. 3.0 Crores per annum.
One of the solutions to the environmental crisis is to completely stop or significantly reduce our paper usage. BEL is moving towards a paperless office and reducing its carbon footprint through such a solution. 18 Lakh papers are saved per annum.
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Customer Relationship Management is a business strategy for optimizing customer interactions. It helps in understanding your customers, their needs and requirements.
SAP CRM is the CRM tool provided by SAP and is used for many customer focused business processes.SAP CRM is a part of SAP business suite. It was implemented as customized module to take care of customer related processes and integrated with other SAP modules. SAP CRM has helped BEL to stay connected to customers. This way organization has achieved customer expectations with the types of services customer actuallyneeds. It has also helped as 'Single face to customer', which means the customer get regular & actual information independent of channel through which the he or she is contacting BEL.
Recently implemented OIMS (Online inventory management system) for Navy is first of its kind and will be extended to all other customers. The system was appreciated by COM(Chief Of Materials) in recently held WESMAC meeting.
Vigilance of the Company has been accredited with ISO-9001:2015 after scrutiny of all procedures in Vigilance departments by third party agency M/s Bureau Veritas evidencing strong commitment in Leadership towards vigilance activities. BEL is the first PSU in India to be accredited with the latest version of ISO 9001:2015 leading with an example for all other PSUs.
Central Vigilance Commission is the apex body for exercising general superintendence over vigilance administration in Government. The institutional frame work for addressing corruption has been progressively strengthened over the years and legal framework also has been extended.
The Commission has felt the need to make a shift in its role making it more thinking, interacting and nurturing in organization. With a view to implement, its mandates the commission wishes to adopt the strategy which will ensure Transparent, Accountable and Efficient governance. One such tool is Integrity Index for public organization which will be based on bench mark of Government for internal and external stake holders. The long term sustainability, profitability, good governance, transparency are closely linked and can help public organization to achieve excellence. Accordingly CVC has decided to develop a tool for measuring Integrity Index to ensure transparent, accountable and efficient governance.
The Commission has appointed Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad as a consultant to develop Integrity Index. It has selected 25 CPSEs and Central Government Departments that are to be covered in developing the Integrity index and BEL is one of the CPSEs identified for this purpose.
BEL has developed the module of Integrity Index which has been shared with IIMA. The salient features of BEL developed Integrity Index are mentioned in the next Para.
Integrity applies to individuals and organizations. Integrity of individuals affects the integrity of organizations and vice versa. Organizations should have processes to promote the culture of integrity, checks and balances to minimize the effect of lack of integrity in individuals. The measurable of Integrity Index are both form inside and outside the Organization. Inside Organization factors are Leadership, Structure, various process and outside Organization factors are perception about the Organization by various stakeholders viz. customers, Vendors, Employees, Statutory authorities and society. Inside factors can be called as facilitators, and outside factors can be called as perceptions. For measuring Integrity Index software development are in progress for which BEL is actively involved along with IIMA. Based on the nature of Organization and nature of business, marks for each factor is to be decided. Leadership of an Organization should set high level of integrity, Facilitate establishment and review of structure, systems and Procedure. Facilitate awareness and training to all sections of employee.
An Organization with high Integrity is expected to have a Structure with clear lines of authority, responsibility, accountability and segregation of duties, Lines of communication to various stakeholders, Independent Vigilance Organization. The key processes are marketing, procurement, contracting, CSR, audits, grievances handling etc.
Processes drive the organization. Well designed and monitored processes can avoid avenues for malpractices and corruption. In order to improve the level of Integrity, processes must be transparent with minimal discretion, IT enabled.
Customer’s perception is important for the survival of the organization.Vendors are important partners for the business. Vendor interactions provide scope for corrupt practices. Therefore, vendor processes need to be monitored constantly.Employees are the backbone of the organization. Their perception of the Integrity of the organization will mould their behavior. Similarly Govt., statutory authorities (eg.Nil comment by CSG.and societies for perception are very important indicator of Integrity of the organization.
After the development of the module, periodic assessment of the integrity index of various organizations will be there. An Organization with high integrity score is more processed dependant, which is automated very minimum manual intervention for decision making, very high regards by all the stake holders and very high statutory and legal compliances. An Organization will be judged based on its score of Integrity Index which will facilitate for future growth and smooth business. High indexed company can easily attract foreign institutional investors, longer credit period by the Vendor, best man power etc.
With the active initiative from Corporate vigilance BEL Management has introduced corruption risk policy w.e.f 06.08.2014 which is already uploaded in BEL vigilance website.
Corruption Risk Management (CRM) Policy is an effort to meet the risk posed by bribery and corrupt activities. This Policy is a commitment of BEL on zero tolerance to corruption and to conduct all the company’s business in an honest and ethical manner, Human Resources administration, Resource Management and relationships. This policy is made available across all units of BEL which recommends taking a proactive approach to prevent corruption. The policy helps to identify risks of corruption that the Organization is exposed to and developing strategies to manage these risks effectively.
The policy will act as guide to all employees of the company and reinforce their commitment towards non-acceptance of any forms of bribery and corruption.
With the active initiative from Corporate vigilance BEL Management has introduced Whistle Blower Policy w.e.f 02.12.2014 which is already uploaded in BEL vigilance website. Whistle Blower Policy is made available internally to all employees through Intranet communication system and externally through BEL- website satisfying the Company’s code of conduct and ethics, and particularly assuring that business is conducted with integrity. This policy encourages everyone to report to the company any suspected violation of any law that applies to the company and any suspected violation of the Company’s code and ethics.
In BEL website, under the policy and guidelines sub-contract procedure, works contract manual, whistle blower policy, complaint handling policy, corruption risk management policy,CTE guidelines on Intensive Examination of Procurement & other contracts, Purchase Procedure, Sub-Contract procedure, works contract manual are also available in BEL website under the heading supplier.
SRM,e-tender, GST registration details of BEL, NIC of BEL e-tender, vendor directory, vendor directory of other PSUs namely BEML, BDL,HAL, MDL,OFB, HSL, GRSE, GSL are available.
In Bharat Electronics Limited, based on initiative from Corporate Vigilance , BEL management has updated all the procurement manuals viz., Purchase Manual, Subcontract Manual, Works Contract Manual were all updated during 2016 aligning with spirit of GFR, CVC, MoD, DPP & DPM guidelines
Integrity Pledge has been administered in different functions viz., Vendor’s meet, Vigilance Awareness Week, VO-IO meet by CMD, Directors of the company along with employees, vendors, contractors evidencing the strong commitment in Leadership of the Organization to fight corruption. Also Online Integrity Pledge was also administered by all BEL employees promulgating further to the family members of BEL. Apart from this, students of BEL schools administered the integrity pledge showing a way in their commitment to anti-corruption.
Integrity Pact(IP), a tool developed by Transparency International to make public procurement transparent by binding both parties to ethical conduct is used in BEL for contracts value above Rs. 4 crores showing Organization’s commitment for forbidding unethical practices. At present BEL covers 100% under Integrity Pact (IP) for the procurement value Rs4 Crore and above. The present coverage is approximately 85% of total procurement excluding the exempted category as per MoD guidelines.
In Bharat Electronics Limited, based on Corporate Vigilance guidelines, BEL management has updated all the procurement manuals viz., Purchase Manual, Subcontract Manual, Works Contract Manual were all updated during 2016 aligning with spirit of GFR, CVC, MoD, DPP & DPM guidelines.
These manuals are uploaded in BELwebsite and has brought transparency in the eyes of public.
Corporate Vigilance of Bharat Electronics Limited has created Online Complaint Management System in addition to conventional email, postal receipt of complaints, to facilitate ease registration of complaints faced by the public to save time and eradicate corruption. This has brought total transparency in the eyes of public.
Online Vendor Registration as an initiative for ease registration by vendors and to broaden vendor base. This has brought total transparency for registering new vendors.
Bharat Electronics Limited utilizes MSTC’s e-commerce system which is ISO 27000:2005 certified, for e-auctions of disposals. The software complies with the Quality requirements of e-procurement systems in line with CVC guidelines, IT Act 2000 & STQC requirements.MSTC acts as a neutral e-commerce service provider to various Central/State Government Departments to ensure transparent and fair sale and purchase decision. The implementation of E-Auctions in BEL through MSTC has improved the transparency and equity in the procurement processes by eliminating possible mal practices prevalent in the manual auctioning process.
BEL has appointed two Independent External Monitors as per CVC guidelines, for examination of high value contracts valuing more than Rs 4 Crores. For 2016-17, 100% high value contracts were examined by Independent External Monitors.
As a part of Corporate Social Responsibility, Bharat Electronics Limited, for the past two years, had approached schools of nearby area and have shown short vigilance films and inspirational films to the students of schools to sow the seed of character, integrity in the tender age. The initiatives have attracted lots of appreciations and applaud from School management for the outreach programme done by Corporate Vigilance.
Employment Self Service (ESS) portal has been initiated to provide equitable services in a transparent manner in the areas of Allotment of Quarters & Guest House Booking, Processing Online leave application, Salary Slips, Provident Fund (PF) details, Provisional Income tax statement, TA/DA claims, Medical claims, Local Conveyance claims etc.,
Corporate Vigilance has been arranging Training Programs for various levels of Officers in order bring in Awareness about the Systems, Procedures etc., for effectively discharging their duties.
As per CVC guidelines regarding to drastically reduce the Single Tender Procurement, Corporate Vigilance has suggested to each Unit,to take and study five high value Single Tender cases and develop alternate vendor for such high value procurements.
Corporate Vigilance has also suggested to do this similar exercise for less value procurements till all the single source procurements are addressed. This is getting reviewed seriously at Corporate Vigilance with the respective Unit Head quarterly.
Based on Corporate Vigilance guidelines, all Units of BEL have formulated a committee to review repeat orders which are placed without competition in order to bring transparency and competition. This exercise has helped BEL to avoid repeat orders wherever there are downward trend in price and has brought value for money for the Organization.
Based on Corporate Vigilance guidelines, all Units of BEL were given data pertaining to increase in Unit price compared to previous procurements in order to effectively monitor the current procurements and have better value for money. This initiative had alerted the BEL Management to properly scrutinize the proposals of procurement by comparing with previous year procurement.
Material Gate Passes are issued for various purposes, to carry out sub operations before getting assembled to the main unit, samples, dispatch against customer orders etc., While Corporate Vigilance has taken up the data for pending MGPs for last 10 years, it was observed that a value of Rs 219 crores were pending at different levels. After follow up with Vigilance within 3 months the figures were brought to less than Rs 100 crores. As a System improvement, it was suggested by Corporate Vigilance, that the pending MGPs are to be reviewed at the Unit level and the same were implemented by the Units of BEL. This has increased enormously, Transparency and Accountability in the Organization.
There were various tools required to manufacture some BEL items by the vendors/subcontractors. These tools though made by the subcontractor, are the property of BEL but may lie with Sub-contractor for future orders of BEL. These tools were not tracked in the system and hence there is a chance that BEL may pay repeat tool charges to the sub-contractor.
Based on Corporate Vigilance guidelines to make the system transparent, a Transaction was made in SAP in order to bring accountability of tools lying with the Sub-contractors in the system level. This has enabled greatly the Transparency and Accountability in the Organization.
The first level of Vigilance Observations on the Internal Audit Reports pertaining to the year 2013-14, 2014-15 & 2015-16 are examined by Corporate Vigilance and a detailed report was submitted to Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) vide Ref 21327/SA&GA/BEL/CO/17-18 dated 25.04.2017. BEL is the first organization who have scrutinized all the internal audit reports pertained to those years to submit to CVC.
Also Corporate Vigilance has scrutinized statutory audit reports and C&AG pertaining to the year2013-14, 2014-15 & 2015-16 and a detailed report was submitted to CVC vide Ref 21327/SA&GA/BEL/CO/17-18 dated 07.04.2017.
(The values of the Orders / Contracts taken for scrutiny is as per CVC guidelines.)
Training Program was organised at BELGAD for five days from 22nd to 26thAugust 2017.Following Speakers and Dignitaries from M/s TransparencyInternational India were invited for different sessions & Paneldiscussion:-
Program was inaugurated by Unit Head BEL Ghaziabad and Sh P S Bawa.
22nd & 23rd Aug 2017:- Training on "Probity in Public Procurement,Integrity Pact & Cyber security". Total 90 executives working in Procurement related functions attended the training in two batches.
24-26th Aug 2017:-Training on "Combating corruption through Collectiveaction". Total 161 executives from all functions attended the trainingin three batches.
On the last day Plant visit was organised for the dignitaries & facultyaccompanied by Unit Head for one hour, which was well appreciated bythem.
