Para 6.7 — CONSULT_MANUAL

6.8 Payment against Time Barred Claims Ordinarily, all claims against the Government are time barred after a period of three years calculated from the date when the payment falls due unless the payment claim has been under correspondence. However, the limitation is saved if there is an admission of liability to pay, and fresh period of limitation starts from the time such admission is made. The drill to be followed while dealing with time barred claims will be decided by the Procuring Entity concerned in consultation with the paying authority. The paying authority is to ensure that no payment against such time barred claim is made till a decision has been taken in this regard by the CA.

6.7 Recovery of Public Money from Consultant's Bill Sometimes, requests are received from a different Ministry/ Department for withholding some payment of a consultant out of the payment or Securities due to it against a contract. Such requests are to be examined by the Procuring Entity (which has received the request) on the merits of the case for further action. It will, however, be the responsibility of the Ministry/Department asking for withholding of payment to defend the Government against any legal procedure arising out of such withholding as also for payment of any interest thereof.

7.2 Modes of EoI 1. Open Tender Enquiry (OTE): (Rule 183

(ii) of GFR 2017, please refer to para 4.2 of the ‘Manual for Procurement of Goods, 2024’ for details) For procurement above Rs 50 (Rupees Fifty) Lakhs shortlisting is done in an openly advertised competitive (OTE mode) shortlisting process called Expression of Interest (EoI), giving equal opportunity to all interested bidders to be considered for shortlisting. Under EoI the "Request for Expression of Interest" (REoI) is advertised on Central Public Procurement Portal (CPPP) at www.eprocure.gov.in and on Government e-Marketplace (GeM). An organisation having its own website should also publish all its advertised tender enquiries on the website. The advertisements for invitation of tenders should give the complete web address from where the bidding documents can be downloaded. A complete ToR should be ready before requesting EoI. Attention of known reputed consultants may also be separately drawn wherever possible. The advertisement must include, among other things, the last date of submission of EoI, how to get/ download copy of the EoI document including ToR, contact information of the Procuring Entity with the name of contact person, and so on.

2. In the first stage of procurement, the qualified firms with requisite experience, technical and financial capabilities, who can be trusted to deliver the required services at the desired level of quality, are shortlisted transparently. This shortlisting is done through Expression of Interest (EoI) process. Care should be taken to avoid stipulation of shortlisting qualification criteria disproportionate to the requirement of the services that may lead to restricted shortlist and lack of competition in the second stage. Adequate time should be allowed for getting responses from interested consultants. The Procuring Entity shall make available copies of the EoI document to the interested consultants in on its website and e-Procurement portal (GeM/ CPPP).

3. In the second stage Request for Proposals (RfP), proposals containing Technical and Financial Bids is invited from such shortlisted bidders. Selection of winning bidder is based on the quality of the proposal and, where appropriate, on the cost of services to be provided.

2. Global Tender Enquiry (GTE): In case it is felt that likely consultants may not be available in India, the EoI process may be done on Global Tender Enquiry (GTE) process, by sending REoI notice to foreign embassies in India and Indian embassies in relevant countries. Please see further details of GTE and also restriction on GTE for tenders below Rs. 200 Crore, in para 4.3 of ‘Manual for Procurement of Goods, 2024’.

3. Limited Tender Enquiry (LTE): (Rule 183

(i) of GFR 2017, please refer to para 4.4 of the Manual for Procurement of Goods, 2024 for details) In procurements of consultancy

Chapter 7: Shortlisting of Consultants, Expression of Interest (EoI) 7.1 Basic Considerations 1. Due to inherent complexities of evaluation of physically non-measurable scope and quality standards of consultancy proposals, it is too time consuming and expensive for the Procuring Entity to invite (as well for the Consultancy firms to prepare) and evaluate proposals from all consultants who want to compete. Therefore. in Procurement of Consultancy, is done in a two-stage process.

7.3 Evaluation of REoI

Chapter 7: Shortlisting of Consultants, Expression of Interest (EoI) services below Rs 50 (Rupees Fifty) Lakhs, shortlisting is done without a formal published Expression of Interest (EoI), akin to a Limited Tender Enquiry (LTE) process. To start with, the preparation of a long list of potential consultants may be done on the basis of formal or informal enquiries from other Ministries or Departments or Organisations involved in similar activities, Chambers of Commerce & Industry, Association of consultancy firms etc. The Procuring Entity should scrutinise the preliminary long list of likely contractors as identified above and shortlist the prima facie eligible and capable contractors from the long list. The number of consultants in this moderated long-list should not be less than three. In case sufficient consultants cannot be located, then the responses may be called from lesser number of consultants, but not less than three in any case, after taking CA's approval. To smoothen this shortlisting of consultants for projects below Rs 50 (Rupees Fifty) Lakhs, Procuring entities who do frequent procurement of consultancy services, may consider preparation of a Panel of qualified consultants (please refer to para 3.7 above), after evaluation of their credentials, on the lines of registration of vendors in procurement of goods. If the complexity of the project so justifies, a formal EoI may be advertised as in above, even for procurements below Rs 50 (Rupees Fifty) Lakhs, with the approval of CA.

4. Special Limited Tender (SLTE): LTE mode for EoI, even for values higher than Rs. 50 lakh (Rupees Fifty Lakh) (Rule 162 of GFR 2017, please refer to para 4.5 of the Manual for Procurement of Goods, 2024 for details), where normally OTE should have been done, is permissible in certain exceptional circumstances as follows. Powers to sanction procurement on LTE basis in such exceptional cases may be laid down in SoPP based on a certificate of urgency signed by the indentor. This mode has the merit of being quicker, but VfM obtained may be less than in case of OTE; hence it should be restricted to following situations.:

d) The competent authority in the Ministry / Department certifies that there is an existing or prospective urgency for operational or technical requirements and any additional expenditure involved by not procuring through advertised tender enquiry is justified in view of urgency. The Ministry/Department should also put on record the nature of the urgency and reasons why the procurement could not be anticipated earlier. e) The sources of supply are definitely known and possibility of fresh source

(s) beyond those being tapped is remote. f) There are sufficient reasons, to be recorded in writing by the competent authority, indicating that it will not be in public interest to procure the services through advertised tender enquiry. g) Government policy designates procurement from specific agencies.