Srinagar: The government Monday reconstituted a J&K-level purchase committee in the School Education Department (SED) which would exercise the powers of purchase of furniture and other articles as per the set norms.
The order in this regard was issued by the Principal Secretary School Education Department (SED) Bishwajit Kumar Singh on Monday.
“In supersession of all previous orders, sanction is accorded to the reconstitution of the J&K-level purchase committee in SED,” the government order reads.
The committee comprises Director Finance SED as its chairman while Director School Education Jammu, Director School Education Kashmir, and Project Director Samagra Shiksha J&K are its members.
Also, SED’s Head of the Planning Section and Joint Director Industries and Commerce department both from Kashmir and Jammu divisions are its member secretaries.
The order said that the committee would exercise its powers as envisaged in the relevant chapter of the Book of Financial Powers and all other rules on the subject.
The committee would ascertain the actual requirement of material, articles, furniture in the institutions subordinate to the department or its subordinate units estimated for utilisation on need basis, the order said.
“The committee will formulate a list of material, articles, furniture as need to be referred to the Purchase Committee for fixation of rate contract and may exempt such items of proprietary character which are not involved in the process of open tender in terms of rules,” the order reads.
The committee has been also empowered to constitute a sub-committee of experts of known technical capability and process to advise the committee on the nature, make and specification of the material, articles, furniture and other items configuration with the actual requirement of items involving technical know-how.
“The committee will put only those items to tender as enlisted by the experts indicating full description of the items together with the required specifications, weight and quality,” the order said.
It said that the material could be procured on the basis of standards fixed by the experts and as per the actual requirement of the institutions where these items are required.
“The purchase committee can utilise the services of the experts from the qualified agencies to determine the quality of the product and the reasonability of rate vis-à-vis the quality and standard thereof,” the order said.