Dimapur, Nov. 12 (EMN): The Nagaland Pradesh Youth Congress (NPYC) has requested the government of Nagaland to rectify a Notice Inviting Tender (NIT) stating that if any bidder is willing to quote below the schedule of rate, the department should be willing to grant contract to them.
The NPYC issued a copy of a representation on Tuesday addressed to the chief minister’s office.
The NPYC said to have been “dumbfounded” to come across the NIT stated to have been issued by the establishment of the chief engineer for Public Works department, roads and bridges, dated October 23 2019.
‘Clause no. 16 of the NIT states that “The acceptance of the lowest rate is not obligatory and quoting of non-workable rate will be summarily rejected,” the representation stated.
‘The NPYC is surprised that the department does not have the intention and willingness to promote the young contractors but to favour only a handful of contractors. NPYC is of the view that such practice by government departments will only promote favouritism and nepotism.’
If any bidder is willing to quote below the schedule of rate, the department should be willing to grant contractor to the firm, because a contractor only after proper assessment will be putting up his bid, the NPYC stated.
Here, the unit gave an instance of what it stated was the initiative of the Kohima District Congress Committee in checking “such corrupt practice” by taking up the issue of NI for ‘strengthening of 57 government schools in various districts of Nagaland,’ issued by the Nagaland Education Mission Society, Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan in 2016. An recent work was the issue about e-Procurement Notice Invitation for Bids issued by the Urban Development department Bid , the representation stated.
“In both the cases, KDCC has raised serious concern and asked the department concerned to rectify the tender clause. That Sir, despite the repeated initiatives to do away with such corrupt practices, it is disheartening to observe departments, including Nagaland PWD continuing to include such clauses in the NIT hampering the prospect of upcoming contractors to look beyond the white collared jobs but encourage more corruption.”
The NPYC has no option but to seek the government’s immediate intervention ‘in bringing an end to usage of such clauses in any tender invitations so that even other contractors gets equal and fair opportunity to compete.’
The NPYC demanded also that the NIT dated 23/10/2019, which is ‘scheduled to be opened tomorrow should be immediately stopped until such time that the clause 16 is removed.’
“Furthermore, in the same NIT, Clause 12 states that ‘Contractors/firms with incomplete phase-VIII PMGSY projects are not eligible to bid.’ NPYC is of the view that any contractor should complete the works as per the date of completion given in the work order and proper action should be initiated, to the extent of blacklisting the firm, and not mere disallowing to bid,” the representation added.
