Para 7.3.6 — GOODS_MANUAL

7.3.7 Evaluation of eligibility: Procuring Entity shall determine, to its satisfaction, whether the Bidders are eligible as per the eligibility criteria in the Tender Document to participate in the Tender Process. Tenders that do not meet the required eligibility criteria prescribed shall be rejected as unresponsive.

7.4. Evaluation of Responsive Bids and Decision on Award of Contract 7.4.1 Introduction 1. Only substantively responsive bids shall be evaluated further.

7.3.6 Contacting Procuring Entity during the evaluation From the time of bid submission to awarding the contract, no Bidder shall contact the Procuring Entity on any matter relating to the submitted bid. If a Bidder needs to contact the Procuring Entity for any reason relating to this tender and/ or its bid, it should do so only in writing or electronically. The procuring Entity shall keep these communications in view during the evaluation of bids but is not expected to respond until the evaluation is complete. Any effort by a Bidder to influence the Procuring Entity during the processing of bids, evaluation, bid comparison or award decisions shall be construed as a violation of the Code of Integrity, and the bid shall be liable to be rejected as nonresponsive in addition to other punitive actions for violation of Code of Integrity as per the Tender Document.

2. The TC evaluates all responsive bids with a view to selecting the lowest (L1) bidder who meets the eligibility/ qualification criteria and techno-commercial aspects. 3. In the case of single-stage, single-envelope tendering, the evaluation of the qualification of bidders, as well as technical, commercial, and financial aspects, is done simultaneously. 4. In single-stage multiple envelopes, initially, only the techno-commercial bids would be opened and evaluated for bids that successfully meet the qualification criteria and technocommercial aspects. Financial bids of such successful bidders would only be opened for selecting the L1 bidder among these, and in the case of off-line tenders, financial bids of unsuccessful bidders would be returned unopened to them. It is of utmost importance that the authenticity, integrity, and sanctity of unopened Financial Bids must be ensured before their opening. In off-line tenders, all the financial bids may preferably be put in a large envelope, which may be dated, sealed, and signed (including by some of the bidders present) to show that none of the bids were accessed during the custody. 5. In two-stage bids, the PQB/ EoI stage would have already been evaluated as detailed in Chapter 4, and this second stage is for evaluation of responses from the shortlisted qualified bidders. Evaluation of techno-commercial and financial aspects are, however, discussed separately below.