Para 7.7.6 - Emergency Procurement | KartavyaDesk

Original Rule Text

5. Enhanced delegations of procurement powers in SoPP may be considered, with the approval of the Secretary of the Department, to handle such situations. 6. Deliveries that suit the urgent/ emergent and disaster management situation may only be allowed. 7. The reasonableness of prices in such situations may be judged by keeping in mind that prices in such situations may be higher than in normal procurement to cater to express deliveries/ disruptions, etc. 8. Model Tender Documents or General Conditions of Contract should not apply to emergency procurements. 9. Minimum timelines for bid submission may be shortened (say 1-3 days). Bids by phone, email, and in-person may also be considered. 10. Norms of minimum bids in a tender may be relaxed, and even a single offer may be accepted without retendering. No tender should normally be allowed to be discharged or re-invited. 11. In emergency procurements, time-consuming norms for Tender Document costs, Earnest Money Deposit (EMD), Security Deposit (SD or performance guarantee), vendor registration fee, verification of eligibility/ qualification (by putting the onus on the vendors to self-declare his eligibility, qualifications, and capability, with penalties for false declarations), Liquidated Damages (LD) or other penalties, Negotiations, etc., may be dispensed with or relaxed. Delegation in this regard may be enhanced and delegated to cutting-edge levels. 12. Documents required for various stages – bids, qualification, eligibility, inspection, and payment must be barely minimum. 13. Instead of physical inspections, vendors’ self-declaration of quality may be accepted. 14. Putting GeM at the centre of all such emergency procurement would help in transparency and price monitoring. However, in urgent/ emergent and Disaster Management situations, in case of procurement below Rs. 50,000, if deliveries are not suitable on GeM, procurement may be done locally as per sub-para 4) above, even if the items are available on GeM, as an exception to the rule. Prior or post facto sanction may be taken from the Secretary of the Department. 15. Ensuring Transparency, Integrity, and Accountability: a) As far as feasible, procurement may be done on the GeM portal. b) All procuring agencies should constitute a separate team (without hampering people involved in procurement) to keep a record of justification and quantum of emergency procurements for future accountability. c) After the crisis is over i) The Competent Authority may issue an order signalling the end of the crisis and the emergency procurement procedures. ii) Special time-bound internal and external audits of all emergency procurements should be done with a large sampling size when normalcy returns. If need be, public or private agencies may be hired to assist with this large volume of audits. iii) Any undelivered contract, if any, may be reviewed for cancellation. iv) Unutilised stocks, if any, may be reviewed for gainful use. 16. Getting Ready for Future Disasters: Such emergency procurement systems and lists may be formalised for future disasters, e.g., the enhanced delegations may be integrated into the normal SoPP as delegations in defined crisis.

What This Means

This explanation was generated with AI assistance for educational purposes. Always refer to the official gazette notification for authoritative text.

Key Points

• •Emergency procurements allow for relaxed or dispensed-with norms regarding tender documents, EMD, SD, vendor registration, and penalties.
• •Minimum timelines for bid submission can be shortened significantly (1-3 days), and bids via phone, email, or in-person may be considered.
• •GeM should be used for transparency, but local procurement is allowed for purchases below Rs. 50,000 if GeM deliveries are unsuitable.
• •A dedicated team should record justifications and quantities for emergency procurements for future accountability.
• •Special audits are required after the crisis to review emergency procurements.

Practical Example

This explanation was generated with AI assistance for educational purposes. Always refer to the official gazette notification for authoritative text.

Frequently Asked Questions

This explanation was generated with AI assistance for educational purposes. Always refer to the official gazette notification for authoritative text.