Finance Ministry drafts mannequin tender to ease purchases

The Finance Ministry has drafted a mannequin tender doc for public procurement by all central authorities departments, in a bid to standardise the language and clauses included, and keep away from contractual disputes.

Public procurement refers back to the buy of products and companies by the general public sector or the federal government, accounting for a mean 15% of GDP globally. In India, authorities procurement is estimated to represent about 30% of GDP with the central authorities accounting for a serious chunk.

The Expenditure Department, which has developed an ordinary bidding doc for use for procurement, has sought feedback on the draft from ministries, central public sector undertakings and the trade at massive. The doc was “in continuation with initiatives to increase effectiveness, good governance, competition and value-for-money in public procurement,” the division stated.

‘Mix of nomenclature’

“There is no standardised nomenclature in public procurement in India and a mix of American, European and Indian nomenclature has become common,” the division identified in an introduction to the 130-odd web page doc for inviting bids for official provides.

As an occasion, it pointed {that a} ‘Tender’ is taken to imply ‘Tender document’ or ‘Tender Process’ in addition to the ‘Bid’ submitted by the possible suppliers.

“Similarly, members within the Tender are known as tenderers and bidders. This duality is mirrored in ‘Notices inviting Tenders’ and ‘Instructions to Bidders, and so on,” the note reviewed by The Hindu points out.

The standard bidding document developed now, seeks to ease out this duality by mooting that the ‘Tender’ ought to check with the tender doc and course of, whereas the time period ‘Bid’ shall check with the bidders’ pitches. ‘Bidder’ is for use as a substitute of ‘Tenderer’ to check with potential suppliers and the utilization ‘Bid document’ be achieved away with, as per the proposed mannequin.

While the generic bidding doc has been made for home open tenders for procurement of normal items, the division has stated it may be tweaked by including appropriate clauses to name for international bids, annual operating provide contracts, and different varieties of procurement.