New Delhi (12.06.2022): Sandeep Verma (IAS:1993:RJ) has been selected for the “Best Paper” award at the recently concluded “International Conference on Data Analytics in Public Procurement & Supply Chain 2022”, organised on June 10-11 by the Arun Jaitley National Institute of Financial Management with support from the Ministry of Finance, Government of India. 

Verma, empaneled by the Government of India for holding Additional Secretary equivalent posts, is currently working in the Cadre as CMD, Rajasthan State Road Transport Corporation (RSRTC), where he oversees over 14,000 employees with over 4,000 buses, providing public transport facilities to over 7 crore residents of Rajasthan. 

He is frequently invited to speak at international conferences to share his insights and expertise in public procurement reform and project management, including comparisons between public procurement systems prevalent in India, USA and Europe. 

His core area of interest lies in using public procurement rules to foster increased domestic manufacturing and in stimulating R&D/ innovation in high-technology areas. He is credited to have trained so far almost 2,000 senior IAS officers and military officials at numerous training programs at LBSNAA, Mussoorie on various aspects of defence procurement, government contracts and project management.

During his three-year-long stint at the Centre as Director in the Ministry of Defence, he handled key assignments where he was tasked with important changes to Defence Procurement Procedure-2013 and DPP-2016, including the new blacklisting guidelines issued by MoD in 2016. 

He also assisted the Government of Assam in drafting its Assam Public Procurement Rules (PPR) and the Government of Chhattisgarh for its Blacklisting Guidelines. He has also drafted a new Public-Private Partnership Policy (PPPP) for the Government of Rajasthan in 2021, as well as a Compendium of Instructions on the grant of arms licenses during his stint as Home Secretary in Rajasthan. During his tenure in Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) in Rajasthan witnessed increased professionalism in project management and competition in the award of public contracts in the Department.