Para 7.2.2 — WORKS_MANUAL

7.2.2 Code of Integrity for Public Procurement48 Procuring authorities as well as bidders, contractors and consultants should observe the highest standard of ethics and should not indulge in the following prohibited practices, either directly or indirectly, at any stage during the procurement process or during execution of resultant contracts:

7.2.3 Obligations for Proactive Disclosures49 i) Procuring authorities as well as bidders, contractors and consultants, are obliged under Code of Integrity for Public Procurement to suo-moto proactively declares any conflicts of interest (coming under the definition mentioned above – pre-existing or as and as soon as these arise at any stage) in any procurement process or execution of contract. Failure to do so would amount to violation of this code of integrity; and ii) Any bidder must declare, whether asked or not in a bid document, any previous transgressions of such a code of integrity with any entity in any country during the last three years or of being debarred by any other procuring entity. Failure to do so would amount to violation of this code of integrity. iii) To encourage voluntary disclosures, such declarations would not mean automatic disqualification for the bidder making such declarations. The declared conflict of interest may be evaluated and mitigation steps, if possible, may be taken by the procuring entity. Similarly voluntary reporting of previous transgressions of Code of Integrity elsewhere may be evaluated and barring cases of various grades of debarment, an alert watch may be kept on the bidder’s actions in the tender and subsequent contract.

i) “Corrupt practice”: making offers, solicitation or acceptance of bribe, rewards or gifts or any material benefit, in exchange for an unfair advantage in the procurement process or to otherwise influence the procurement process or contract execution; ii) “Fraudulent practice”: any omission or misrepresentation that may mislead or attempt to mislead so that financial or other benefits may be obtained or an obligation avoided. This includes making false declaration or providing false information for participation in a tender process or to secure a contract or in execution of the contract; iii) “Anti-competitive practice”: any collusion, bid rigging or anti-competitive arrangement, or any other practice coming under the purview of The Competition Act, 2002, between two or more bidders, with or without the knowledge of the procuring entity, that may impair the transparency, fairness and the progress of the procurement process or to establish bid prices at artificial, non-competitive levels;

iv) “Coercive practice”: harming or threatening to harm, persons or their property to influence their participation in the procurement process or affect the execution of a contract;

v) “Conflict of interest”: participation by a bidding firm or any of its affiliates that are either involved in the consultancy contract to which this procurement is linked; or if they are part of more than one bid in the procurement; or if the bidding firm or their personnel have relationships or financial or business transactions with any official of procuring entity who are directly or indirectly related to tender or execution process of contract; or improper use of information obtained by the (prospective) bidder from the procuring entity with an intent to gain unfair advantage in the procurement process or for personal gain; and vi) “Obstructive practice”: materially impede the procuring entity’s investigation into allegations of one or more of the above mentioned prohibited practices either by deliberately destroying, falsifying, altering; or by concealing of evidence material to the investigation; or by making false statements to investigators and/ or by threatening, harassing or intimidating any party to prevent it from disclosing its knowledge of matters relevant to the investigation or from pursuing the investigation; or by impeding the procuring entity’s rights of audit or access to information;