Going all out in its efforts to realize the dream of Aatmanirbhar Bharat, ONGC has committed to spend around INR 30,000 crore 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.

CMD, Director and Senior Executives in Corporate Business Partners’ Meet - 2021

Delivering the theme address, CMD Subhash Kumar underlined that as has been its ethos, ONGC highly values the contribution of its business partners. Mr Kumar, who was the guiding force behind the organization of the meet, said that ONGC is able to achieve its targets year after year because of the timely and committed support from its vendors. He said 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. He 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. Such interfaces need to be harnessed for better service. It won’t be long before the majority of procurements done by ONGC are from GeM. 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 per cent invoices in electronic form and added that we will soon touch 100 per cent mark. Talking about the delay in payment, he said that digitization will ensure that these thing become a matter of the past.

CMD Subhash Kumar delivering theme address

We have tried to make a paradigm shift as far as our commitment to supporting government’s objective of Aatmanirbhar Bharat is concerned. “We also remain committed to support 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.

Earlier, while delivering the inaugural address, Director (T&FS) In-charge MM Services Om Prakash Singh wholeheartedly acknowledged the key role and support of business partners in ensuring delivery of materials and services for uninterrupted operations even during the current challenging pandemic times. He said ONGC Management, on its part, has always been committed to ensure ease of doing business with effective stakeholder participation and engagement.

Mr Singh noted that the objectives of the meet were to:

• Align ONGC process chain to achieve highest safety standards in all areas of operations
• Promote localization and Aatmanirbhar Bharat initiatives
• Maximize procurement through GeM portal
• Maximize value of procurement
• Create a business environment for both - Business Partners and ONGC
• Improve competitiveness
• Reduce delays and minimize disputes
• Keep environment and sustainability goals in focus
• Maintain high standards of transparency, ethics and conduct

“In today’s meet, we shall share the company’s views broadly on two aspects: importance of quality and timely procurements for ONGC and our expectations from business partners. We also look forward to listening from our business partners on their aspirations and expectations from ONGC and their candid feedback for improvement.” He noted that policy initiatives undertaken by ONGC for ease of doing business and major upcoming business opportunities will also be explained to vendors during the session.

Director (T&FS) In-charge MM Services OP Singh delivering welcome address

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 on Aatmanirbhar Bharat clarion call given by our Prime Minister while highlighting the importance of growing economy, infrastructure and technology-based systems.”

As per the directives of 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 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.

Noting that several feedbacks and suggestions have been received from Business Partners ahead of the meet, Director (T&FS) assured that ONGC will not leave any stone unturned to meet the expectations of our business partners to create a win-win environment. Underlining that safety is paramount, he said that ONGC accords highest priority to safety in all its areas of operations. “Safety cannot be achieved standalone. Rather, it needs a collaborative and participative approach of all stakeholders including our business partners.” 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.

Chief MM A P Tripathi, Head EPC Sanat Kumar , Head PMC P K Goel and Head VMC Nikhil Gaur

Three separate presentations were made during the interaction, which was attended by around 400 participants. Apart from vendors, online event was attended by respective Key Executives, In-charges of MM, Finance and other important stake holders 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 Government of India in the recent past regarding 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 internal processing of the invoice on the portal was showcased during the presentation for a better understanding of the vendors. It also included VIMS presentation for facilitating prompt vendor payment process with transparency and to enable vendors to track their payment status at different offices of ONGC online.

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. At this point, Director (T&FS) said there are tremendous business opportunities coming up in ONGC in the near future and urged all vendors to register themselves with ONGC and GeM and become a part of this success story.

Glimpses from the presentations

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 document, GST, change in law, force majeure, payment, etc.

Feedback received from business partners discussed during the meet

Lastly, an open-house discussion was held with business partners, during which various suggestions were given by vendors for improvement in 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.

Talking about offshore tenders, a vendor suggested to address project schedule issues. “The schedules set by ONGC for offshore tenders are very tight. As a bidder we adhere to the schedules presented in the notification to invitation. But as we progress with the tender, we find that the delays get adjusted towards the completion period. To continue, we are brought to a point where we have to concede to a reduced project completion schedule, which are unrealistic at times," the vendor said.

Another vendor, while appreciating ONGC’s efforts for digitization of tender process, noted that while most of the tender process has been digitized, the contracts still require to be signed physically and suggested to introduce a procedure to sign contracts virtually as well.

ONGC Key Executives viz. Chief Offshore Logistics N K Garg and Head IPSHEM Atul Garg interacting with Business Partners

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.

At the end, Director (T&FS) thanked everyone for their active participation in the interaction. “You have come out with very useful suggestions that we are going to examine. A committee is working to review integrated Material Management Manuals. All of your suggestions will be examined by the committee.”

ED – Chief MM Services Delhi, Senior Executives and Team Corp MM Services

Delivering the vote of thanks, ED – Chief MM Services Delhi AP Tripathi thanked the CMD and Directors for gracing the interaction with their presence. “We are extremely thankful to CVO Anant Kumar Singh and ED – Chief Security Dr Baljit Singh.” He acknowledged the support of vendors and thanked ONGC Executives for their participation. He thanked team Corporate MM Services for organizing the event. Mr Tripathi also mentioned the support of different departments including HR, Hospitality, Finance, Infocom and Corporate Communication for making the meet a grand success. The online meet was efficiently managed by Sr MMO - Corporate MM M Salimuddin in a professional manner. The entire event was executed under the leadership of ED - Chief MM AP Tripathi and GGM - Head PMC Pradeep Goel ably supported by Team Corporate MM Services including PMC & VMC.