CCI wants its views on tenders, bids in buy bill

NEW DELHI: India's competition watchdog has asked the department of expenditure to incorporate its suggestions on designing tenders and bidding models in the Public Procurement Bill, which is awaiting Parliament nod.

A senior official, who did not wish to be named, told ET that the Competition Commission of India has, in a letter to the finance ministry, emphasised the need to ensure fair competition in all spheres of the government's procurement policy.

"The bill, in its present form, talks about a code of integrity for the procuring agent as well as qualifying requirements for the bidders, but it is more or less silent on the way tenders should be designed so as to integrate elements of fair play," the CCI official said, adding, "This is crucial for any procurement process."

The Public Procurement Bill, 2012 seeks to regulate procurement by the government for various projects, including roads contracts and metro rail. The department of expenditure must rope in the CCI to frame the norms as well as to train the authorities to competition principles, the official said.

According to a Planning Commission report in 2011, the scale of public procurement in the country varies between 15% and 20% of GDP. The Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development estimates that its 34 member countries lose about $400 billion (over Rs 22 lakh crore) due to faulty procurement processes.