Para 5.6 — CONSULT_MANUAL

2. In e-procurement, all tenders uploaded by bidders are received, safeguarded, and opened online on the portal as detailed in Appendix 3: Electronic Procurement (eProcurement) and e-Auction’ of ‘Manual for Procurement of Goods, 2024’.

3. In offline tenders, receipt and custody of bids shall be done in a transparent manner to maintain the credibility of the process. The following guidelines should be adhered to for receipt and custody of bids:

a) The authorised representatives of bidders, who intend to attend the tender opening in OTE/ GTE/ SLTE are to bring with them letters of authority from the corresponding bidder. The prescribed format for the letter of authority for attending the bid opening should be given in the tender document. All bid-opening activities should be carried out demonstrably before such a gathering. The prescribed format for the bid opening attendance sheet and report are given at Annexure 5; b) At a prescheduled date and time, the BOC of the day should get the tender box opened, after ensuring and demonstrating that the seal on the box has not been tampered with. All bids should be collected from the tender box. Bids for tenders not opening on that day should be put back into the box and the box resealed. Sometimes, there would be tenders dropped wrongly into this tender box. Such wrongly dropped tenders with appropriate endorsement should be put into the appropriate box or sent to the Tender Committee (TC) concerned if the date of opening is over. The bids for different tenders opening on the day (including oversized bids, which were submitted to designated officers) should be sorted, and a count for each tender should be announced and recorded, particularly noting any modifying/altering/withdrawal of bids. BOC should ensure and demonstrate that bid envelopes are duly sealed and untampered. Late bids should be separately counted but kept aside and not opened. In the case of an advertised tender enquiry or limited tender enquiry, late bids (that is, bids received after the specified date and time for receipt of bids) should not be considered (Rule 188 of GFR 2017); c) The technical bids will be opened on the pre-announced date and the financial proposals shall remain sealed and shall be opened publicly only for those firms that have qualified technically.

5.6 Opening of Bids 1. Immediately after the deadline for bid submission, procuring entity shall proceed to the bid opening. If the specified date of Bid Opening falls on is subsequently declared a holiday or closed day for the Procuring Entity, the Bids shall be opened at the appointed time on the next working day. In offline tenders, the BOC shall comprise one officer each from the procuring entity and Associated/ integrated Finance.

d) After opening, every tender shall be numbered serially (say 3/14 – if it is the third bid out of 14 total), initialled, and dated on the first page by the BOC. Each page of the price schedule or letter attached to it shall also be similarly initialled, particularly the prices, delivery period, and so on, which shall also be circled and initialled along with the date. Any other page containing significant information should also be dealt with similarly. Blank tenders, if any, should be marked accordingly by the BOC. The original (and duplicate, if any) copies in a tender set are to be marked accordingly by the BOC; e) Erasure/cutting/overwriting/use of whitener/columns left unfilled in tenders, if any, shall be initialled along with date and time and numbered by the officials opening the tenders and total number of such noticed alterations (or the absence of any alteration) should be explicitly marked on the first page of the bid. Wherever quantity/amount is written only in figures, the BOC should write them in words. All rebates/discounts should be similarly circled, numbered, and signed. In the absence of any alteration/overwriting/whitener/ blanks, the remark “no corrections noted” should be written. Similarly, the absence of discounts should be marked with “no discounts noted;” f) The BOC is to announce the salient features of the tenders such as description and specification, quoted price, terms of delivery, delivery period, discount, if any, whether EMD furnished or not, and any other distinctive feature of the tender for the information of the representatives attending the tender opening. No clarifications by bidders should be entertained or allowed to be recorded during the bid opening. BOC has no authority to reject any tender at the tender opening stage; g) Financial instruments should be noted in the bid opening report/register and handed over to the Finance Section for safe custody and monitoring; and h) A bid opening report containing the names of the bidders (serial number wise), salient features of the tenders, as read out during the public opening of tenders, will be prepared by the tender opening officers, and duly signed by them along with the date and time. The tenders that have been opened, list of the representatives attending the tender opening, and bid opening report are to be handed over to the nominated purchase officer and an acknowledgement obtained for him. The name of the bidder proposed prices shall be read aloud and recorded when the financial proposals are opened. No modification to financial proposals is permitted. The Procuring Entity shall prepare the minutes of the public opening. Format at Annexure 5 may be used for this purpose. When electronic submission of proposals is used, this information shall be posted online. i) Similar procedure shall later be followed during Financial Bid Opening in case of multiple-envelop bidding.