Government Plans Criteria For Social Media Purchases.
NEW DELHI: The government may soon have a standardised procedure and criteria to hire and pay agencies for uploading its official videos on YouTube and posting its messages on Twitter and Facebook.
At present, most government agencies have their social media handles managed by third parties, and these contracts vary due to lack of uniform criteria and purchase procedures. “We are evolving benchmarks for buying social media services like making movie clips and posting them on various social media platforms. These are at a preliminary stage,” an official aware of the development told ET.
The increasing social media requirement is likely to be met through the national public procurement portal, Government e-Marketplace (GeM), as the online purchase platform plans to host such services which need to be constantly evaluated while billing.
The Singapore government has one such plan to purchase social media services.
GeM is in talks with various government agencies, including departments and public sector units, to host “project procurement” such as social media services and consultant services, which are long gestation and require continuous assessment. “We are trying to get the requirements from various government agencies to develop a standard process and key performance indicators which they want to be measured, such as the number of likes and shares,” the official said. “No such standards exist today due to which the users (government departments) go for third-party agencies.”
GeM, which facilitates online purchase of goods and services by government organisations, was launched by the commerce and industry ministry on August 9, 2016 in place of Directorate General of Supplies and Disposal (DGS&D).
