Role of Departmental Tender Committee
Government of West Bengal
Finance Department
Audit Branch
No. 5965-F(Y) Dated 14th September, 2018
MEMORANDUM
Sub: Role of Departmental Tender Committee.
The Finance Department has issued guidelines from time to time regarding acceptance of tenders. However, the role of the Departmental Tender Committee has not been outlined as a separate Order. References have been received from different Administrative Departments seeking clarification about the role of the Departmental Tender Committee in acceptance of tenders.
2. After careful consideration of the matter, it has been decided that the Administrative Departments, except the Works/ Engineering Departments which have already constituted their Departmental Tender Committees, shall constitute a Departmental Tender Committee comprising of members including at least an officer in the rank of Joint Secretary or above as its Chairman, an Engineer/ Technical Expert of appropriate seniority, the Financial Adviser, and any other officer as desired by the Additional Chief Secretary/ Principal Secretary/ Secretary of the Department.
3. The Departmental Tender Committee shall be responsible for evaluation and recommendation of tender related works including but not limited to the following:
i. Scrutinize all the tender related documents to ascertain whether all the basic principles of public procurement have been followed;
ii. Ensure that the necessary formalities as per guidelines issued by Finance Department from time to time have duly been observed by the Tender Inviting Authority;
iii. Check the technical criteria including the necessary credentials in order to ensure that the technical criteria were not too restrictive and not fixed at a higher level than required for the project;
iv. In case of Non-Schedule Items, the market rate of similar items or substitute items may also be compared. And after evaluation, if it is revealed that the discovered rate is unreasonably higher than the prevalent market rate/ estimated cost then the Committee shall take a view on the reasonableness of the discovered rate; and
v. Place the matter for approval of the appropriate authority in the Department after doing due diligence on the tenders.
Sd/- H.K. Dwivedi
Additional Chief Secretary to the
Government of West Bengal