<span style="color: #222222;">Finance Secretary Dr T.V. Somanathan on Friday released the guidelines to usher in reforms in Public Procurement and Project Management in New Delhi. The formulation and release of these guidelines is a part of continuous process of review of existing rules and procedures as emphasised by the Prime Minister during his Independence Day address this year. This is being monitored by Cabinet Secretary as a special campaign during 2nd October  to 31st October, 2021.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The draft of the guidelines was prepared under the aegis of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) after a detailed consultative process involving experts from various fields of public procurement and project management. The Department of Expenditure (DoE), Ministry of Finance, was nominated to issue the guidelines after soliciting and detailed consideration of the comments of Ministries/ Departments.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">These guidelines attempt to incorporate into the realm of Public Procurement in India, innovative rules for faster, efficient and transparent execution of projects and to empower executing agencies to take quicker and more efficient decision in public interest. Some of the improvements include prescribing strict timelines for payments when due. Timely release of ad hoc payments is expected to improve liquidity with the contractors especially Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.</span>