Para 1.11 — CONSULT_MANUAL

1.12 Principles for Public Procurement of Consultancy Services 1. Other principles of Public Procurement as mentioned in para 1.8 above are also equally applicable to Procurement of consultancy services. To ensure value for money during procurement of consultancy services, the following additional principles shall be considered:

a) Services to be procured should be justifiable in accordance with Para 1.11 above; b) Terms of Reference (a document covering well-defined scope of work/ description of services and the time frame for which services are to be availed of) should be consistent with the overall objectives of Procuring Entity; c) Equal opportunity to all qualified Consultants to compete should be ensured;

1.11 When is Procurement of Consultancy Services justified Rule 178 & 180 of GFR 2017, permits Ministries/ Departments to hire external professionals, consultancy firms or consultants (referred to as consultant hereinafter) for a specific job, which is well defined in terms of content and time frame for its completion. Engagement of consultants may be resorted to in situations requiring high quality services for which the Procuring Entity does not have requisite expertise. Approval of the competent authority should be obtained before engaging consultant(s). We may justify need for Procurement of Consultancy Services on consideration of:- a) The assignment should be well defined in terms of content and time frame for its completion b) The inadequacy of Capability or Capacity of required expertise in-house; d) The need to have qualified consultants for providing a specialized high-quality service; e) Need for impartial advice from a consultant (acting independently from any affiliation) to avoid conflicts of interest; f) The need in some cases for Transfer of Knowledge/ Training/ Capacity and capability building as a by-product of such engagement; g) Need to acquire information about/ identifying and implementing new methods and systems; h) Need for planning and implementing organizational change i) There may be internal capacity/ capability to do the job but there are considerations of economy, speed, and efficiency in relation to additional requirement/ commitment/ usage of; i) Staff/ Management/ Organization; ii) Technological and Material Resources; iii) Money, and iv) Time/ Speed of execution.

Manual for Procurement of Consultancy Services, Second Edition, 2025 d) Engagements should be economical and efficient. e) Transparency and integrity in the Consultancy process (that is, proposed, awarded, administered, and executed according to highest ethical standards) and; f) Additionally, in procurement of consultancy services, consultants should be of high quality, in line with justification as per para 1.11 above. (Rule 180 of GFR 2017)

2. In Procurement of Consultancy, these considerations can be best addressed through unrestricted competition among qualified shortlisted firms or individuals in which selection is based on the quality of the proposal and, where appropriate, on the cost of services to be provided. Hence Procurement of Consultancy needs to be done in a two-stage process.