MoRTH, vide a circular dated August 28, 2024, clarified the manner in which MoRTH and its constituents, including NHAI, should treat a situation where only a single bid is received pursuant to an open, competitive bidding process. The circular made reference to a letter issued by the Ministry of Finance, Department of Expenditure on October 29, 2021, wherein procuring entities were advised to not assume that receiving single bids is unacceptable. The letter had advised ministries and departments to not automatically go for retendering if a single bid is received. Giving reference to the above letter, MoRTH, through its circular, has now specified that single bids received pursuant to open tendering will not be rejected automatically provided that certain conditions are satisfied. These conditions are: (a) procurement was satisfactorily advertised, and sufficient time was given to submit the bids; (b) qualification criteria was not unduly restrictive; and (c) price received from the single bid is reasonable in comparison to market values.
The present circular has also clarified that while determining market value, the evaluation committee constituted for a tender will examine the rates mentioned in the single bid with rates being received from similar contracts elsewhere. The purchase price in such similar contracts may be analysed after considering factors such as inflation during the interim period, geographical conditions, etc.
Source: MoRTH circular dated August 28, 2024
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