Systemic Improvement in Procurement Process
8.0 Brief Introduction:
A requirement of Pressure Reducing Panels (PRPs) was published through MDL open tender as project requirement.
8.1 Background:
As per the project requirement, the said open tender was floated on e-procurement site with pre-qualification criteria (PQC) as “Suppliers shall submit details of past supply of PRPs of pneumatic working pressure 200 bar or more. Relevant purchase orders along with proof of supply of PRPs to any warship are to be submitted”.
After floating the tender, one of the prospective bidder has raised allegations regarding the PQC. After investigation the case in detail following is observed:
a) Dealing design executives & PE(D) have not carried out any feasibility study/analysis as well as due diligence before preparing TSP/PR for PRP as well as formulating TPQC. Even though, they had not even checked which PQC was there in the existing orders placed against the same requirement for the P15B project.
b) During procurement process, proper information was not passed on to respective Executives through their superiors.
c) Procurement process was affected due to the selection of ineffective/restricted PQC. It also restricted the competition.
d) Due to the ineffective/restricted PQC many prospective/interested bidders lost their opportunity in bidding process, which affected on healthy & transparent competition.
e) Lot of problems were faced by MDL during installing the PRPs on P15A ships, because in earlier projects there was Pressure Reducing Panels (PRSs) in place of PRPs. Same was not considered as a “lesson learn” while projecting/procuring of the PRPs for P17A.
f) Competition could have been enhanced if PQC indicated experience of PRP/PRS/PRV instead of only PRP.
The published tender was scrapped & PQC was rectified as “Suppliers shall submit details of past supply of PRPs/PRSs/PRVs of pneumatic working pressure 200 bar or more. Relevant purchase orders along with proof of supply of PRPs/PRSs/PRVs to any warship/marine applications are to be submitted”
To avoid such recurrences Vigilance Department suggested systemic improvements after investigating the case which will be helpful while dealing with such types of procurements in future.
8.2 Implementation:
As a systemic improvement, the following was suggested and the same was implemented through a memorandum from the Functional Director concerned.
(a) Dealing executives and PE(C) should ensure that the tender is released in SAP, before publishing on e-procurement site.
(b) PR initiator should review the PQC before incorporating in PR. PR approver shall also check the same, while approving PR as well as TSP.
(c) PR initiator / approver should carry out feasibility study / analysis or survey of the same requirement with other warship building shipyards.
(d) If any action suggested/initiated by HOS/HOD while approving files in FLM, same information should be shared to dealing executive.
8.3 Impact and Benefits:
With the implementation of the above mentioned Systemic improvement, the possibility of ambiguous pre-qualification criteria shall be avoided & healthy completion shall be received in procurement process with transparency. Scrapping of tender could be avoided and time lapsed during procurement process shall be avoided.
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