The tender committee in East Coast Railway gained an upper hand in the procurement process when they spotted unethical practices being employed by one of the bidders.
According to a statement by the zone, ECoR had invited bids for procurement of a key component of a locomotive on a trial basis. The plan was to procure, use and customize design before large scale procurement. This component was expected to help improve operational efficiency in a pilot project.
Of the four bidders who had participated in the December 2019 tender, the lowest bidder had quoted a price that was still too high. Negotiations subsequently held with the firm brought the rate down by 25%. The firm agreed to this price, said ECoR.
The quality and rate achieved in such developmental procurement are of paramount importance as they shall set a benchmark for large-scale future procurement covering the entire Indian Railways.
Since the tender process is online, the representative of the lowest bidder agreed to revise their bid online. However, later it was found they backtracked and only reduced the price by 1%.
The zone responded by making a counteroffer to all the eligible four firms by distributing the required quantity equitably to the firms and quoting a price which was arrived at in the negotiation, i.e., about 25% less compared to Lowest 1 firm offer.
This was done because, if a counter offer would have been made to the lowest 1 firm only for the whole quantity, then it was certain that they would have rejected it leading again to discharge of the tender. The move of the tender committee yielded and all four firms accepted the offer.
Thus, Railway shall get the experimental lot at 25% reduced cost from all the four firms, setting a good benchmark price for large scale future procurement of the item all over Indian Railways. Further, the investigation is on by ECoR Vigilance to ascertain the reason behind Lowest 1 firm initially backing out from its negotiated offer to the Railways.
