Para 5.2 — GOODS_MANUAL

5.2.2 Participation of Bidders 1. Eligibility Criteria: The tender document may lay down eligibility criteria (for more details, refer to the MTD for Procurement of Goods) for participating in the tender process, e.g., restrictions on participation by bidders relating to - type of commercial entity (e.g., the bidders must be a private or Public registered entity), insolvency, ineligibility/ debarment/ convictions/ conflict of interest, Class of bidders (as per Make in India Order), bidders from countries having land borders with India etc. Except for the eligibility criteria, participation shall be open to all bidders in Open/ Global Tender Enquiries. In the case of the Second Stage (of two Stage Bidding or PQB) or Limited Tenders, participation shall be open only to such bidders who have been previously shortlisted or specifically invited.

Tender documents should preferably be sold or available for download after the date and time of the start of availability till the deadline for availability as mentioned in the tender document (say up to date of opening of tenders), and this should be clearly indicated in the documents. The organisation should also post the complete tender document on the website and permit prospective bidders to make use of the document downloaded from the website.

Normally, no tender document fee should be charged. In exceptional cases, a procuring entity may fix a bare minimum cost of tender documents to defray the expenses/ effort of preparing documents, drawings, etc. The cost of the tender document is to be submitted to the authority nominated therein by the prospective bidder in the form of a demand draft /banker’s cheque/ pay order/ online payment gateway. Firms that are eligible for exemption from the tender document cost, such as MSEs and Procuring Entity’s registered units (for relevant items and monetary limit), have to submit/ upload scanned copies of documents in support of this exemption.

2. Purchase Preference Policies: The Procuring Entity may reserve its right to grant preferences to eligible Bidders under various Government Policies/ directives (policies relating to Make in India, MSME, Start-ups, etc.).

3. Conflict of Interest: Bidders having a conflict of interest shall not be eligible to participate in the tender process unless the conflict stemming from such relationship has been resolved in a manner acceptable to the Procuring Entity throughout the Tender process and execution of the Contract. Please also refer to para 3.2 above. The bidder shall be considered to have a conflict of interest in this tender process and execution of the resultant contract in the following situations:

a) If its personnel have a close personal, financial, or business relationship89 with any personnel of the procuring entity who are directly or indirectly related to the procurement or execution process of the contract, which can affect the decision of the procuring entity directly or indirectly;

b) The bidder (or his allied firm90) provided services for the need assessment/ procurement planning91 of the Tender process in which it is participating;

5.2. Obtaining Tender Documents and Submitting Bids Availability and Cost of Tender Documents (Rule 161

(v) of GFR 2017)

4. OEM/ Agents of Supplier: a) Except in the case of Commercially-Off-the-Shelf (COTS) items, when a firm sends a quotation for an item manufactured by some different company, the firm is also required to attach, in its quotation, the manufacturer's authorisation certificate and manufacturer's confirmation of extending the required warranty support for that product (in addition to the bidders' confirmation to the required warranty) as per formats given in Tender Documents. This is necessary to ensure a quotation from a responsible party offering a genuine product backed by a warranty obligation from the concerned manufacturer. b) In the case of large contracts, especially capital equipment, the manufacturer’s authorisation must be insisted upon on a tender-specific basis, not general authorisation/dealership, by clearly declaring it in the tender documents.

c) A Principal can authorize only one agent, and an agent should not represent or quote on behalf of more than one Principal. However, this shall not debar more than one Authorised distributor (with/ or without the OEM) from quoting equipment manufactured by an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) in procurements under a Proprietary Article Certificate or d) A bidder participates in more than one bid in this tender process. Participation in any capacity by a Bidder (including the participation of a Bidder as a partner/ JV member or sub-contractor in another bid or vice-versa) in more than one bid shall result in the disqualification of all bids in which he is a party. However, this does not limit the participation of an entity as a sub-contractor in more than one bid if he is not bidding independently in his own name or as a member of a JV;

(Rule 173

(x) of GFR 2017)