Irregularities in Tendering
Role of Central Vigilance Commission
The managerial administration deals with the issues relating to the proper procurement of goods and services. The public sector organizations have strong governance mechanisms to deal with issues of corruption. Before the year 2000, every file of public sector organizations was considered a confidential secret document and at that time, it was very difficult to detect financial irregularities.
The committee on the prevention of corruption recommended to set up Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) in 1964 and in 2003, the bill was passed in Parliament and ‘the Central Vigilance Commission Act’ is enacted. The CVC inquires and investigates cases of corruption. As per financial rules of the Government, the procurement of goods is required to be justified on three parameters directly related to prudent use of public money i.e. (i) Economy, (ii) Efficiency, (iii) Effectiveness. These three parameters are known as 3 Es for the authorities to look into, before taking the decision to use the public money.
Why use Tender in procurement?
The first and most important cause of using the tender system for procurement is ‘ensuring transparency and efficiency in procurement’. A tender provides equal and fair treatment to vendors and service providers. It promotes competition and the chances of getting goods at the lowest prices increased. The tender process is very difficult to be cracked by corrupt people. The tender in itself is designed particularly to ensure no room for corruption. There are a lot of guidelines issued by the Central Vigilance Commission to carry out procurement-related activities properly.
Importance of tendering in public procurement
Tendering is an important process in public procurement because it ensures transparency, competition, fairness, and value for money. Here are some reasons why tendering is important in public procurement:
Transparency: The tendering process is transparent, which means that it allows all interested parties to compete for public contracts fairly. This can help prevent corruption, favoritism, and other unethical practices that can occur when contracts are awarded without competition.
Competition: Tendering encourages competition among suppliers, which can lead to better prices, higher quality goods or services, and more innovative solutions. When suppliers compete, they are motivated to offer the best value for money, which benefits both the government and the public.
Fairness: The tendering process ensures that all suppliers have an equal opportunity to compete for public contracts. This helps to prevent discrimination and ensures that the contract is awarded to the most qualified supplier.
Value for money: Tendering helps to ensure that the government gets the best value for money. By inviting competitive bids, the government can compare prices, quality, and other factors to ensure that the contract is awarded to the supplier that offers the best value.
Accountability: The tendering process is accountable, which means that the government can be held responsible for its decisions. If a supplier is awarded a contract that is not in the public interest, the government can be held accountable for its decision.
In summary, tendering is an important process in public procurement because it promotes transparency, competition, fairness, value for money, and accountability. By using a tendering process, the government can ensure that public contracts are awarded to the most qualified and cost-effective supplier.
Lalit Kumar
e-Procurement
e-Procurement is the process of conducting procurement activities electronically, typically through the use of internet-based technologies. It involves the use of digital platforms and tools to streamline and automate the procurement process, from the initial sourcing of suppliers through to the final payment of goods or services.
e-Procurement offers a number of benefits over traditional procurement methods. Some of these benefits include:
Increased efficiency: e-Procurement can streamline and automate many of the processes involved in procurement, such as supplier identification, request for proposal (RFP) issuance, and purchase order creation. This can save time and reduce administrative overheads, allowing procurement professionals to focus on more value-added activities.
Cost savings: By automating and streamlining procurement processes, e-Procurement can help reduce procurement costs. It can also help to drive down prices by increasing competition among suppliers.
Improved accuracy: e-Procurement can help reduce errors in the procurement process, such as manual data entry errors or miscommunications. By automating many of the procurement processes, e-Procurement can help ensure that data is accurate and up-to-date.
Better supplier management: e-Procurement can help procurement professionals to manage supplier relationships more effectively, by providing real-time visibility into supplier performance, and automating the process of supplier selection and evaluation.
Increased transparency: e-Procurement can help increase transparency in the procurement process, by providing real-time visibility into the status of procurement activities, including RFP issuance, supplier selection, and contract award.
e-Procurement can be used in a range of procurement activities, including sourcing, bidding, negotiation, contract management, and payment processing. Some common e-Procurement tools include e-sourcing platforms, e-tendering systems, e-auction platforms, and e-invoicing systems. These tools can be used by both private and public sector organizations to streamline and automate their procurement processes.
Precautions before proceeding to award Tender:
The tender process is required to be followed strictly in order and a single mistake can lead to financial irregularities. There are a lot of tenders in which the competent authorities face litigation from the suppliers’ side and sometimes auditors point out the irregularities. Before proceeding to award a tender, the procurement authorities should reflect the following upon file with a justification pointing out the true and fair position of the authorities:
(i) Specifications in terms of quality and quantity should be justified.
(ii) Procurement of excess quantity of goods should always be avoided.
(iii) The tender procedure should be notified to the committee constituted to supervise and implement the tender system. The procedure should be fair and transparent, in other words, full-proof in awarding the tender to a good vendor.
(iv) Procurement of goods should only be done as per the actual requirements of the office.
(v) Provision should be made to keep proper records of procurement stages so that the procurement cannot be challenged as faulty.
Delhi Transport Bus Corporation Procurement:
Delhi Transport Corporation procured one thousand low-floor buses. Further, an Annual Maintenance Contract (AMC) was also done in the procurement of the buses. The basic principle for fair procurement is to create competition among the bidders so that the vendor or service provider with the least price can be provided the work order. The BJP demanded a CBI probe in this matter on the basis that tendering process is completed with monopoly pricing instead of competitive pricing. It is a must to use proper procedure and in the process of procurement of low floor buses and AMC, there were procedural lapses. Even if there is no scam in a particular case, it is a must to adopt a fair procedure.
Income Tax Department Raids Dainik Bhaskar
The concern is relating to tax evasion and the department of Income Tax raids usually. This time it is upon Newspaper Agencies such as Dainik Bhaskar.
In next article, it is studied how procurement is done in Government.
