Para 9.4.3 — GOODS_MANUAL

GOODS_MANUAL

9.4.3 Types of Inspection 1. Pre-dispatch Inspection: a) A pre-dispatch inspection may be conducted either during various stages of the production process (which is known as stage inspection) or on the production of the finished products but before the dispatch of the goods from the supplier’s premises. Stage inspection may be used for highly technical goods whose quality of the manufacturing process is likely to have a considerable effect on the final quality and durability of the goods. Even after pre-dispatch inspections, these materials should be inspected again upon receipt as a matter of abundant precaution. b) Inspection of the materials before dispatch shall be carried out by the inspection agency nominated in the contract or by its representative at the premises of the supplier in accordance with the inspection procedure laid down and incorporated in the purchase order. c) The supplier should bear the testing charges for samples, and this should be made clear at the enquiry stage itself to avoid claims later/or affect his position in the comparative statement of offers. Any special testing involving significant financial implications shall be settled prior to placement of the order, and such costs should form part of the evaluation. d) In the case of offshore supplies, the pre-dispatch inspection clause shall be incorporated in the purchase order wherever required: e) The procuring entity may depute its representative or a third-party inspection agency to the supplier’s manufacturing premises to carry out/witness inspection and testing, performance testing at its discretion; f) Alternatively, the Procuring Entity shall retain an option to waive the above and accept the material based on the supplier’s internal test report, guarantee and fitment certificate. In this regard, the written approval of the HoD of the Indenting Department should be obtained, and the reasons for it should be recorded. g) Whenever the inspection is carried out at the supplier’s manufacturing premises, an inspection on receipt of goods at Procuring Entity shall also be carried out by an officer of the Indenting Department or a third-party inspection agency, as the case may be.
h) It has been brought to the notice of the Department of Expenditure that the contracts signed with suppliers by some of the Ministries/ Departments have clauses of preinspection at the firm’s premises, where there is a provision that the suppliers or the vendors will pay for the travel, stay, hospitality and other expenses of the Inspecting officials. This is not in keeping with the need to safeguard the independence of the inspecting teams. Such provisions in contracts need to be discouraged so that Inspections are not compromised. Necessary steps may be taken to avoid such provisions in the contracts with suppliers/ vendors strictly. Please also refer to para 3.5-1.
Inspection of Goods on Receipt at Consignee/User’s Site: a) Post-delivery inspection is carried out upon receipt of goods before acceptance. This should be typically done for goods that are available off-the-shelf and are BIS-marked. All final goods that may be directly consumed or utilised on delivery (excluding machinery installations and so on) and for which detailed inspection of the manufacturing process is not required, and only a physical inspection regarding their physical characteristics may be inspected using this method. On receipt of goods at stores, the storekeeper should immediately notify the officer nominated for inspection, requesting to schedule an inspection. The inspecting officer should then fix a date for the inspection. b) In procurement involving samples (please refer to para 2.2.1-9, discouraging evaluation of samples/ demos after bid opening), there should be three sealed reference samples (one with the Procuring Entity, one for Inspection and one with the contractor for guidance during manufacture). The Contract may, if considered necessary, also provide for the submission of a pre-production sample matching the purchaser’s reference sample before giving clearance for bulk production of the supply. In such cases, supplies/ pre-production samples must be inspected for indeterminate characteristics with the reference sample for inspection, whereas for the remaining characteristics it must be in conformity with the laid down drawings/specifications (which may be done by any other type/ agency of inspection, if so provided in the contract). In the case of pre-production samples, a go-ahead for bulk production shall not be given unless these pass the inspection. However, delay should be avoided in grant of clearance. c) The consignee has the right to reject the goods upon receipt during the final inspection of delivery even though the goods have already been inspected and cleared at the pre-dispatch stage by the Procuring Entity’s inspector. However, such rejection should be strictly within the contractual terms and conditions, and no new condition should be adopted when rejecting the goods during the final inspection. d) Goods accepted by the purchaser at the initial and final inspections, in terms of the contract, shall in no way dilute the purchaser's right to reject them later if found deficient in terms of the warranty clause of the contract. e) In case of rejection of goods at this stage, the material rejection advice/rejection memo should be sent to all concerned, which is the firm, purchaser, pre-inspecting agency, paying authority, associate bill paying authority, and so on. The concerned paying authority, as per the contract and associate bill paying authority, should note the rejection advice details in its recovery register to effect recovery of payments made, as the case may be. In case of replacement supply against the rejected lot of goods, the process should remain the same in terms of the sequence of preinspection/inspection as laid down in the contract prior to acceptance by the consignee.
3. Manufacturer’s Quality Self-certification: a) In case goods are imported from abroad, pre-dispatch inspection of goods at the supplier's premises involves considerable expenditure on the purchaser. In such a situation, the purchaser may substitute pre-dispatch inspection by its inspector with the manufacturer's in-house inspection report and Quality Self-certification. However, before adopting this procedure, the nature and cost of the goods ordered, the reputation of the supplier, and so on should also be kept in view, and appropriate decisions should be made. To check the reputation and background of the supplier, the purchase organisation may also request the Indian embassy located in that country for a report on the technical and financial competence of the firm. Furthermore, trustworthy publications such as Thomas Register, Dun and Brad Street Register, and so on are also available in the USA and Europe and provide authentic technical and financial data and details of the manufacturing companies located in those countries. Such publications may also be relied upon for this purpose. Acceptance of materials under the firm’s quality self-certification may be considered where: i) The user Departments indicate, in their indent, that physical inspection is not necessary and that the materials can be accepted on the firm’s quality selfcertification; ii) At the Contract Management stage, where pre-dispatch provisions exist, if the user department justifies substituting the Manufacturer’s Quality Self-certification instead of pre-dispatch inspection to meet urgent requirements from a reputed manufacturer’s as per sub-para-a) above, and where the firm is agreeable to 100 (hundred) per cent payment against the consignee’s receipt and acceptance, this waiver may be approved by CA. In such cases, the user Departments themselves should be responsible for ensuring the quality of goods supplied. Justification for the waiver should be recorded.
4. Inspection on Installation and Commissioning: This method is adopted to check the performance and output of equipment or machinery after it is commissioned and operational at the site.
9.4.4 Types of Inspection Agencies Normally, inspection modalities or agencies for inspections specified in the contract should not be changed. In rare cases, when this becomes inescapable, it should be done with the approval of the CA, justifying the rare circumstances, and ensuring that no undue benefit accrues to the contractor.
2. External Inspecting Authorities: a) In case the Procuring Entity does not have the technical expertise or for other relevant reasons, the inspection may also be entrusted to a third-party inspection authority. The procuring entity, however, retains the right to reject the consignment, even if third-party inspection authorities have cleared it.
In case of acceptance of the replacement supply/ rejected supply after rectification, the earlier issued material rejection advice/ rejection memo should be withdrawn under advice to all concerned.
1. Internal Inspection Authorities: Wherever technical expertise is available in-house, an internal officer of the Indenting Department is nominated for inspection. The consignee should be the final authority for the acceptance of goods.
9.4.5 Issue of Inspection Report After satisfactory inspection and tests, the acceptable goods shall be stamped, labelled, marked, or sealed in such a way as to make subsequent identification and tally with the inspection report of accepted lots easy for the consignee/user. The following guidelines should be used for inspection reports to be issued:
b) Sometimes, it becomes necessary to conduct a type test, acceptance test, or special test at external laboratories when facilities for these tests are not available in-house with the supplier or if carrying out confirmatory tests is considered desirable before accepting the goods. The Procuring Entity should draw up a list of approved laboratories for this purpose, to which the samples drawn from the lots offered by the supplier can be sent for tests. The list should also contain approved laboratories, which can be used as referral/appellate laboratories for retesting when samples tested at one laboratory are decided to be re-tested. The following guidelines should apply to such cases:
i) External testing may invariably be done by nationally accredited or reliable laboratories, preference being given to the National Test House (NTH). For testing the samples drawn from the lots offered by the supplier, an inspection agent qualified to conduct random sampling in accordance with Quality Assurance requirements should make the selection of samples; ii) Test reports must contain the values obtained in the tests besides fail/pass results. The laboratory must preserve the sample and test records for a period of three years; iii) The Department should lay down a liability statement for costs expended on tests, dispatch of samples, transportation costs, test charges, and so on., in respect of samples tested at outside laboratories as may be applicable and iv) In cases where the samples are to be tested at the supplier’s cost because of the non-availability of his own testing arrangements, the responsibility of depositing the testing fees would rest with the supplier. v) Normally, unless otherwise intended in the contract, charges of routine testing prior to dispatch of materials are to be borne by the supplier and charges of testing of materials after receipt by the consignee are to be borne by the procuring agency. The contract should clearly state the responsibility for the cost of materials expended in tests and charges for special tests, e.g., type tests or tests at external labs. Even where the procuring entity is responsible for testing charges, if the material fails in the test, the charges shall become the responsibility of the seller.
3. Joint Inspection on Complaint: In case a written complaint is received from the supplier disputing the rejection of goods by the Procuring Entity (please refer to para 9.4.3-2-e), it should be jointly investigated by a team consisting of an authorised representative of the Procuring Entity, a senior representative of the inspecting agency who is conversant with the goods and an authorised representative of the supplier. In case the firm fails to associate with a joint inspection, it should be held with the pre-inspecting agency.
9.4.6 Material put up for Inspection towards the End of Delivery 1. As soon as possible, the inspection should commence and be finished, and the inspection report should be issued during the validity period of the contract. In cases where the supplier offers materials for inspection during the last few days of the contract delivery period or even on the last day of the contract delivery period, the inspecting officer should make efforts to commence the inspection before the expiry of the delivery period. 2. In cases where it is not possible to commence or conclude the inspection before the expiry of the delivery period, the inspecting officer should immediately, on receipt of the intimation or request for inspection of the materials, bring this to the notice of the supplier orally as well as in writing. He must mention that the materials have been submitted for inspection at an extremely late stage and that it is not possible to commence/conclude the inspection before the expiry of the delivery period. 3. The supplier should also be informed that the goods offered for inspection should, however, be inspected until the completion of the inspection, which can be after the expiry of the delivery period and that such an inspection continuing after the expiry of the delivery period is neither intended nor to be construed as condoning the delay or keeping the contract alive. 4. Franking Clause on Acceptance and Rejection: In such cases, the inspection note, whether accepting or rejecting the goods, should be duly franked as per the franking clause given below. This clause may also be incorporated in the conditions of the contract:
1. Each inspecting officer shall be supplied with acceptance stamps, lead seals, pliers, rubber stamps, stencils, labels, stickers, holograms, and so on, according to requirements, for sealing and marking the inspected goods in terms of the contract. He will be responsible for the safekeeping of these articles and shall ensure that unauthorised persons do not misuse them. Unserviceable seals, pliers, stamps, stickers, holograms, and so on shall be returned to the concerned issuing official. The procuring entity shall lay down detailed guidelines covering all these aspects. For security reasons and to avoid irregular or incorrect issues, inspection notebooks should be machine numbered and, wherever possible, different coloured copies marked for each user. An account of the inspection notes issued with serial number-wise details shall be maintained in an appropriate register. The procuring Entity should also develop a foolproof system to avoid any fraudulent and unauthorised use of the inspection notes. All these security issues can be more easily addressed in digitally signed inspection notes. 2. There should not be any initial provisional acceptance at a lower level. A time limit shall be fixed for the issue of inspection documents. The inspection note shall also indicate the validity period, which is the period by which the supplier must dispatch the accepted goods to the consignee in terms of the contract. The number of copies of the inspection notes and their distribution for distinct types of inspections will be as prescribed by the procuring entity/indentor Department; 3. Inspection reports should be prepared detailing the inspection done, samples examined, requirements as per the relevant specification/contract and the observations jointly with the representative of the firm. Each inspection note copy issued should invariably bear the individual’s name stamp along with the designation and code number of the officer authorised to sign and issue inspection documents. Facsimiles of the inspection stamps and their position should be put on the inspected material to help identify the inspected goods at the consignee's end. Inspection note copies meant for payments should be attested with the inspecting officer's full signature in ink. The Accounts Department will make payments only against copies so attested, not against any other copy. Corrections, if any, on the inspection note should be duly authenticated by the officer issuing it. Similarly, each continuation sheet, if attached to the inspection note, should be signed by the inspecting officer at the relevant places, and any correction duly authenticated; 4. Departmental instructions should invariably prescribe that paying authorities will keep a record of specimen signatures of authorised inspecting authorities for verification with the signature in the inspection note while authorising payment; 5. A separate inspection report must be prepared for each consignment. In the case of large consignments, the issue of the inspection report may not be held up until the inspection of the full consignment is completed. These must be issued for lots inspected every day or every two days. If the contract is in terms of ‘sets’ or ‘numbers’ and materials are such that they comprise several components or accessories, the inspection report should be issued only when all parts, components and accessories forming a set are inspected and accepted. When plant and equipment are ordered with spares, the inspection report for spares should not be issued before acceptance of the main equipment. In the case of contracts for imported materials that involve initial inspection in the country of origin and final inspection in India, the final inspection note should be issued giving reference to the certificate issued abroad; 6. For materials that the inspecting officer has rejected, the rejection inspection report should be issued immediately following the completion of the inspection. In case of total rejections, no copies should be issued for payments or the accounts office. All the reasons for rejection and deviations against the governing specifications, drawings or other particulars should invariably be noted in detail in the “remarks” column of the rejection inspection note. The rejected material should be given a yellow paint (or a chisel) mark to avoid it being submitted again for inspection or supplied to other customers. Such copies should be cancelled across by the inspecting officer with his signature and retained in the inspection file along with the office copy of the rejection inspection note; and
7. No ‘certified true copy’ of the lost original payment copies should be issued until a ‘nonpayment certificate’ has been received from the accounts officer concerned stating that payment has not been made and should not be made against the original inspection report even if received subsequently. This copy must be endorsed as a “certified copy.” This endorsement should be attested in full in indelible ink by the officer, proving a crossreference to the accounts officer’s non-payment certificate with the name stamp and the designation and code number of the officer issuing the duplicate copy.
“The issue of this inspection/rejection report does not acquiesce or condone the late delivery and does not intend or amount to an extension of the delivery period or keeping the contract alive. The goods are being passed/ rejected without prejudice to the rights of the Purchaser under the terms and conditions of the contract.”

GOODS_MANUAL

9.4.3 Types of Inspection 1. Pre-dispatch Inspection: a) A pre-dispatch inspection may be conducted either during various stages of the production process (which is known as stage inspection) or on the production of the finished products but before the dispatch of the goods from the supplier’s premises. Stage inspection may be used for highly technical goods whose quality of the manufacturing process is likely to have a considerable effect on the final quality and durability of the goods. Even after pre-dispatch inspections, these materials should be inspected again upon receipt as a matter of abundant precaution. b) Inspection of the materials before dispatch shall be carried out by the inspection agency nominated in the contract or by its representative at the premises of the supplier in accordance with the inspection procedure laid down and incorporated in the purchase order. c) The supplier should bear the testing charges for samples, and this should be made clear at the enquiry stage itself to avoid claims later/or affect his position in the comparative statement of offers. Any special testing involving significant financial implications shall be settled prior to placement of the order, and such costs should form part of the evaluation. d) In the case of offshore supplies, the pre-dispatch inspection clause shall be incorporated in the purchase order wherever required: e) The procuring entity may depute its representative or a third-party inspection agency to the supplier’s manufacturing premises to carry out/witness inspection and testing, performance testing at its discretion; f) Alternatively, the Procuring Entity shall retain an option to waive the above and accept the material based on the supplier’s internal test report, guarantee and fitment certificate. In this regard, the written approval of the HoD of the Indenting Department should be obtained, and the reasons for it should be recorded. g) Whenever the inspection is carried out at the supplier’s manufacturing premises, an inspection on receipt of goods at Procuring Entity shall also be carried out by an officer of the Indenting Department or a third-party inspection agency, as the case may be.
h) It has been brought to the notice of the Department of Expenditure that the contracts signed with suppliers by some of the Ministries/ Departments have clauses of preinspection at the firm’s premises, where there is a provision that the suppliers or the vendors will pay for the travel, stay, hospitality and other expenses of the Inspecting officials. This is not in keeping with the need to safeguard the independence of the inspecting teams. Such provisions in contracts need to be discouraged so that Inspections are not compromised. Necessary steps may be taken to avoid such provisions in the contracts with suppliers/ vendors strictly. Please also refer to para 3.5-1.
Inspection of Goods on Receipt at Consignee/User’s Site: a) Post-delivery inspection is carried out upon receipt of goods before acceptance. This should be typically done for goods that are available off-the-shelf and are BIS-marked. All final goods that may be directly consumed or utilised on delivery (excluding machinery installations and so on) and for which detailed inspection of the manufacturing process is not required, and only a physical inspection regarding their physical characteristics may be inspected using this method. On receipt of goods at stores, the storekeeper should immediately notify the officer nominated for inspection, requesting to schedule an inspection. The inspecting officer should then fix a date for the inspection. b) In procurement involving samples (please refer to para 2.2.1-9, discouraging evaluation of samples/ demos after bid opening), there should be three sealed reference samples (one with the Procuring Entity, one for Inspection and one with the contractor for guidance during manufacture). The Contract may, if considered necessary, also provide for the submission of a pre-production sample matching the purchaser’s reference sample before giving clearance for bulk production of the supply. In such cases, supplies/ pre-production samples must be inspected for indeterminate characteristics with the reference sample for inspection, whereas for the remaining characteristics it must be in conformity with the laid down drawings/specifications (which may be done by any other type/ agency of inspection, if so provided in the contract). In the case of pre-production samples, a go-ahead for bulk production shall not be given unless these pass the inspection. However, delay should be avoided in grant of clearance. c) The consignee has the right to reject the goods upon receipt during the final inspection of delivery even though the goods have already been inspected and cleared at the pre-dispatch stage by the Procuring Entity’s inspector. However, such rejection should be strictly within the contractual terms and conditions, and no new condition should be adopted when rejecting the goods during the final inspection. d) Goods accepted by the purchaser at the initial and final inspections, in terms of the contract, shall in no way dilute the purchaser's right to reject them later if found deficient in terms of the warranty clause of the contract. e) In case of rejection of goods at this stage, the material rejection advice/rejection memo should be sent to all concerned, which is the firm, purchaser, pre-inspecting agency, paying authority, associate bill paying authority, and so on. The concerned paying authority, as per the contract and associate bill paying authority, should note the rejection advice details in its recovery register to effect recovery of payments made, as the case may be. In case of replacement supply against the rejected lot of goods, the process should remain the same in terms of the sequence of preinspection/inspection as laid down in the contract prior to acceptance by the consignee.
3. Manufacturer’s Quality Self-certification: a) In case goods are imported from abroad, pre-dispatch inspection of goods at the supplier's premises involves considerable expenditure on the purchaser. In such a situation, the purchaser may substitute pre-dispatch inspection by its inspector with the manufacturer's in-house inspection report and Quality Self-certification. However, before adopting this procedure, the nature and cost of the goods ordered, the reputation of the supplier, and so on should also be kept in view, and appropriate decisions should be made. To check the reputation and background of the supplier, the purchase organisation may also request the Indian embassy located in that country for a report on the technical and financial competence of the firm. Furthermore, trustworthy publications such as Thomas Register, Dun and Brad Street Register, and so on are also available in the USA and Europe and provide authentic technical and financial data and details of the manufacturing companies located in those countries. Such publications may also be relied upon for this purpose. Acceptance of materials under the firm’s quality self-certification may be considered where: i) The user Departments indicate, in their indent, that physical inspection is not necessary and that the materials can be accepted on the firm’s quality selfcertification; ii) At the Contract Management stage, where pre-dispatch provisions exist, if the user department justifies substituting the Manufacturer’s Quality Self-certification instead of pre-dispatch inspection to meet urgent requirements from a reputed manufacturer’s as per sub-para-a) above, and where the firm is agreeable to 100 (hundred) per cent payment against the consignee’s receipt and acceptance, this waiver may be approved by CA. In such cases, the user Departments themselves should be responsible for ensuring the quality of goods supplied. Justification for the waiver should be recorded.
4. Inspection on Installation and Commissioning: This method is adopted to check the performance and output of equipment or machinery after it is commissioned and operational at the site.
9.4.4 Types of Inspection Agencies Normally, inspection modalities or agencies for inspections specified in the contract should not be changed. In rare cases, when this becomes inescapable, it should be done with the approval of the CA, justifying the rare circumstances, and ensuring that no undue benefit accrues to the contractor.
2. External Inspecting Authorities: a) In case the Procuring Entity does not have the technical expertise or for other relevant reasons, the inspection may also be entrusted to a third-party inspection authority. The procuring entity, however, retains the right to reject the consignment, even if third-party inspection authorities have cleared it.
In case of acceptance of the replacement supply/ rejected supply after rectification, the earlier issued material rejection advice/ rejection memo should be withdrawn under advice to all concerned.
1. Internal Inspection Authorities: Wherever technical expertise is available in-house, an internal officer of the Indenting Department is nominated for inspection. The consignee should be the final authority for the acceptance of goods.
9.4.5 Issue of Inspection Report After satisfactory inspection and tests, the acceptable goods shall be stamped, labelled, marked, or sealed in such a way as to make subsequent identification and tally with the inspection report of accepted lots easy for the consignee/user. The following guidelines should be used for inspection reports to be issued:
b) Sometimes, it becomes necessary to conduct a type test, acceptance test, or special test at external laboratories when facilities for these tests are not available in-house with the supplier or if carrying out confirmatory tests is considered desirable before accepting the goods. The Procuring Entity should draw up a list of approved laboratories for this purpose, to which the samples drawn from the lots offered by the supplier can be sent for tests. The list should also contain approved laboratories, which can be used as referral/appellate laboratories for retesting when samples tested at one laboratory are decided to be re-tested. The following guidelines should apply to such cases:
i) External testing may invariably be done by nationally accredited or reliable laboratories, preference being given to the National Test House (NTH). For testing the samples drawn from the lots offered by the supplier, an inspection agent qualified to conduct random sampling in accordance with Quality Assurance requirements should make the selection of samples; ii) Test reports must contain the values obtained in the tests besides fail/pass results. The laboratory must preserve the sample and test records for a period of three years; iii) The Department should lay down a liability statement for costs expended on tests, dispatch of samples, transportation costs, test charges, and so on., in respect of samples tested at outside laboratories as may be applicable and iv) In cases where the samples are to be tested at the supplier’s cost because of the non-availability of his own testing arrangements, the responsibility of depositing the testing fees would rest with the supplier. v) Normally, unless otherwise intended in the contract, charges of routine testing prior to dispatch of materials are to be borne by the supplier and charges of testing of materials after receipt by the consignee are to be borne by the procuring agency. The contract should clearly state the responsibility for the cost of materials expended in tests and charges for special tests, e.g., type tests or tests at external labs. Even where the procuring entity is responsible for testing charges, if the material fails in the test, the charges shall become the responsibility of the seller.
3. Joint Inspection on Complaint: In case a written complaint is received from the supplier disputing the rejection of goods by the Procuring Entity (please refer to para 9.4.3-2-e), it should be jointly investigated by a team consisting of an authorised representative of the Procuring Entity, a senior representative of the inspecting agency who is conversant with the goods and an authorised representative of the supplier. In case the firm fails to associate with a joint inspection, it should be held with the pre-inspecting agency.
9.4.6 Material put up for Inspection towards the End of Delivery 1. As soon as possible, the inspection should commence and be finished, and the inspection report should be issued during the validity period of the contract. In cases where the supplier offers materials for inspection during the last few days of the contract delivery period or even on the last day of the contract delivery period, the inspecting officer should make efforts to commence the inspection before the expiry of the delivery period. 2. In cases where it is not possible to commence or conclude the inspection before the expiry of the delivery period, the inspecting officer should immediately, on receipt of the intimation or request for inspection of the materials, bring this to the notice of the supplier orally as well as in writing. He must mention that the materials have been submitted for inspection at an extremely late stage and that it is not possible to commence/conclude the inspection before the expiry of the delivery period. 3. The supplier should also be informed that the goods offered for inspection should, however, be inspected until the completion of the inspection, which can be after the expiry of the delivery period and that such an inspection continuing after the expiry of the delivery period is neither intended nor to be construed as condoning the delay or keeping the contract alive. 4. Franking Clause on Acceptance and Rejection: In such cases, the inspection note, whether accepting or rejecting the goods, should be duly franked as per the franking clause given below. This clause may also be incorporated in the conditions of the contract:
1. Each inspecting officer shall be supplied with acceptance stamps, lead seals, pliers, rubber stamps, stencils, labels, stickers, holograms, and so on, according to requirements, for sealing and marking the inspected goods in terms of the contract. He will be responsible for the safekeeping of these articles and shall ensure that unauthorised persons do not misuse them. Unserviceable seals, pliers, stamps, stickers, holograms, and so on shall be returned to the concerned issuing official. The procuring entity shall lay down detailed guidelines covering all these aspects. For security reasons and to avoid irregular or incorrect issues, inspection notebooks should be machine numbered and, wherever possible, different coloured copies marked for each user. An account of the inspection notes issued with serial number-wise details shall be maintained in an appropriate register. The procuring Entity should also develop a foolproof system to avoid any fraudulent and unauthorised use of the inspection notes. All these security issues can be more easily addressed in digitally signed inspection notes. 2. There should not be any initial provisional acceptance at a lower level. A time limit shall be fixed for the issue of inspection documents. The inspection note shall also indicate the validity period, which is the period by which the supplier must dispatch the accepted goods to the consignee in terms of the contract. The number of copies of the inspection notes and their distribution for distinct types of inspections will be as prescribed by the procuring entity/indentor Department; 3. Inspection reports should be prepared detailing the inspection done, samples examined, requirements as per the relevant specification/contract and the observations jointly with the representative of the firm. Each inspection note copy issued should invariably bear the individual’s name stamp along with the designation and code number of the officer authorised to sign and issue inspection documents. Facsimiles of the inspection stamps and their position should be put on the inspected material to help identify the inspected goods at the consignee's end. Inspection note copies meant for payments should be attested with the inspecting officer's full signature in ink. The Accounts Department will make payments only against copies so attested, not against any other copy. Corrections, if any, on the inspection note should be duly authenticated by the officer issuing it. Similarly, each continuation sheet, if attached to the inspection note, should be signed by the inspecting officer at the relevant places, and any correction duly authenticated; 4. Departmental instructions should invariably prescribe that paying authorities will keep a record of specimen signatures of authorised inspecting authorities for verification with the signature in the inspection note while authorising payment; 5. A separate inspection report must be prepared for each consignment. In the case of large consignments, the issue of the inspection report may not be held up until the inspection of the full consignment is completed. These must be issued for lots inspected every day or every two days. If the contract is in terms of ‘sets’ or ‘numbers’ and materials are such that they comprise several components or accessories, the inspection report should be issued only when all parts, components and accessories forming a set are inspected and accepted. When plant and equipment are ordered with spares, the inspection report for spares should not be issued before acceptance of the main equipment. In the case of contracts for imported materials that involve initial inspection in the country of origin and final inspection in India, the final inspection note should be issued giving reference to the certificate issued abroad; 6. For materials that the inspecting officer has rejected, the rejection inspection report should be issued immediately following the completion of the inspection. In case of total rejections, no copies should be issued for payments or the accounts office. All the reasons for rejection and deviations against the governing specifications, drawings or other particulars should invariably be noted in detail in the “remarks” column of the rejection inspection note. The rejected material should be given a yellow paint (or a chisel) mark to avoid it being submitted again for inspection or supplied to other customers. Such copies should be cancelled across by the inspecting officer with his signature and retained in the inspection file along with the office copy of the rejection inspection note; and
7. No ‘certified true copy’ of the lost original payment copies should be issued until a ‘nonpayment certificate’ has been received from the accounts officer concerned stating that payment has not been made and should not be made against the original inspection report even if received subsequently. This copy must be endorsed as a “certified copy.” This endorsement should be attested in full in indelible ink by the officer, proving a crossreference to the accounts officer’s non-payment certificate with the name stamp and the designation and code number of the officer issuing the duplicate copy.
“The issue of this inspection/rejection report does not acquiesce or condone the late delivery and does not intend or amount to an extension of the delivery period or keeping the contract alive. The goods are being passed/ rejected without prejudice to the rights of the Purchaser under the terms and conditions of the contract.”

Para 9.4.3 — GOODS_MANUAL

Original Rule Text

Para 9.4.3 — GOODS_MANUAL

Original Rule Text