9.0 Brief Introduction:

Biennial Maintenance Contract (BMC) for Electrical equipmentis finalized through tendering. There were two such tenders floated simultaneously for Similar type of equipment but with different capacities. One of the tenders was an open tender whereas the other was a single tender.

9.1 Background:

Based on a compliant received from a vendor, the Scope of Work (SOW) in the tenders and the criteria to decide tendering methods in both the tenders (single and open) were scrutinised. It was observed that the SOW involved in both the tenders were similar.

The basis of floating single tender to the vendor was “last successful manufacturer supplier”. For providing maintenance services including spares was being offloaded repeatedly to the same vendor, on single tender basis, who supplied the item, whereas the tender for rate contract for maintenances services of similar item (different brand) was met by floating the open tender.

It was also observed that there was misinterpretation w.r.t. Proprietary Article Certificate (PAC). To buy an item on single tender basis either PAC is required or there should be single vendor nomination from customer. This being a non-project item for yard requirement, PAC was not sought at tendering stage. During investigation, CFA (who approved the indent) was asked about PAC but he was not aware of what is PAC. The User department also stated that the spares of the said equipment were not available in open market. On further investigation, the PAC submitted by the User department was a proprietary Certificate, self-certified by the vendor itself. PAC is supposed to be issued by a competent authority on the customer side.Also, it was understood that spares of the subject item could have been manufactured/arranged by any manufacturer/supplier for the maintenance of the item.

9.2 Implementation:

As a systemic improvement, the following was suggested and the same was implemented through a memorandum from the Functional Directorconcerned.

(a) The requirements of Maintenance Contracts are to be studied in detail and possibilities be explored to enter AMC/BMC/TMC through competitive bidding. If it is inevitable, a cogent justification is to be recorded for adopting single/Limited mode of tendering.

(b) While purchasing the items on PAC basis, the validity of PAC issued by authoritiesconcerned is to be duly checked and ensured.

(c) HODs of all indenting departments are to ensure that all executives are imparted with basic training on the aspects of preparing indents, issue of PAC etc.

9.3 Impact and Benefits:

With the implementation of the above mentioned Systemic improvement, all executives concerned are instructed so that erroneously going for single tendering is eliminated for future tenders.

Back