As charges of corruption hog the headlines, the Union finance ministry on Tuesday came out with a set of proposed rules on public procurement, aimed to ensure transparency in purchases by all government agencies and central public sector units, and providing for penalties on wrongdoers.
The draft Bill contains broad principles and will be supplemented by rules. It provides for a grievance redressal mechanism and penalties for offences, including barring of bidders found to engage in corrupt practices. It suggests there would be no price negotiations, except in prescribed circumstances, with reasons to be recorded.
Also there should not be any restriction on the number of bidders, other than on specified conditions.
The criteria for evaluating bids have to be published in the bid documents and no changes will be permitted thereafter, says the draft.
The ministry has constituted a committee to hold “wide consultations” and modify the draft after receiving suggestions, so that a revised Bill could be sent to the Cabinet and then tabled in Parliament.
The draft Bill was mooted following recommendations of the Committee on Public Procurement headed by former bureaucrat Vinod Dhall.
Later, a group of ministers approved the Dhall report and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh mentioned about the Bill in his Independence Day speech this year.