The Buyer may call for a Pre-Bid interaction with all the participating Service Providers specifying the Pre-Bid venue and Pre-Bid date which should be before the Bid End Date. Pre-Bid interaction may be called with an objective to discuss, clarify and understand the scope of the service from the Buyer’s perspective. Changes, if any, may be made through the Corrigendum to Bid based on the minutes of the Pre Bid meeting.
"Minimum Floor Price" is the price below which bidders will not be allowed to quote. However, Bid can also be created without Minimum Floor Price. Buyer may prescribe Minimum floor Price with the approval of the Competent Authority of Buyer Organization. Buyer can define Minimum floor price for a service while creating a bid document. This feature is available for State govt. and CPSE Buyers only. However, for commission based services, this feature is available for all the buyers.
Buyer Specific Terms and conditions may be added by buyer in Additional Terms and Conditions section while creating the bid. Option for uploading the document (word and pdf format) as well as Text based inputs is available to the buyer.
The Pre-bid functionality is now available in all services. The Buyer may call for a Pre-Bid interaction with all the prospective Service Providers specifying the Pre-Bid venue and Pre-Bid date. Pre-Bid interaction may be called with an objective to discuss, clarify and understand the scope of the service from the Buyer’s perspective. Changes, if any, may be made through the Corrigendum to Bid based on the minutes of the Pre Bid meeting. It is advisable to provide sufficient time gap between the pre Bid meeting and bid end date.
The splitting functionality is presently available only for Custom Bid for Services. However, the buyer can declare the intent of splitting in the bid document through ATC and GeM will provide necessary Technical support at the time of ordering for all standard Service categories. Alternatively, the buyer can also use the functionality of item/schedule wise evaluation for this purpose.
Yes, buyer can mandate service provider to provide mandatory certificates or other documents along with the bid. During bid creation, the buyer can select requisite documents to be submitted by the bidder pertaining to Turnover and Past Experience. In addition to above, he can also seek additional documents through Additional Terms and Conditions (ATC).
Yes, prior Government Experience can be selected as an eligibility criteria.
Buyer may define the eligibility criteria while creating the bid. However, evaluation of the bid with respect to the eligibility criteria needs to be done by the buyer during technical evaluaiton. It is not done through system by GeM.
In case, the buyer selects Yes for Past Experience of Similar Services then following project experience clause is printed in the bid document:
Past Experience of Similar Services: The bidder must have successfully executed/completed similar Services
over the last three years i.e. the current financial year and the last three financial years(ending month of March
prior to the bid opening): -
1. Three similar completed services costing not less than the amount equal to 40% (forty percent) of the
estimated cost; or
2. Two similar completed services costing not less than the amount equal to 50% (fifty percent) of the estimated
cost; or
3. One similar completed service costing not less than the amount equal to 80% (eighty percent) of the estimated
cost.
Yes, annual turnover can be selected as an eligibility criteria. However, buyer will have to verify the turnover of the bidder from the submitted documents during technical evaluation.
Yes, estimated bid value includes GST. GeM has now provided an option to the buyer to choose whether they want to print the Estimated Bid Value in the bid document or not.
If the buyer opts for the Price Breakup option, they will have to upload the price breakup format during Bid document creation. All the bidders will have to mandatorily upload the PDF of the filled price breakup in the given format while participating in the bid.
L-1 evaluation will be done on the basis of the Lumpsum price quoted by the bidder and price breakup will not have any impact on the L-1 discovery.
Yes, Buyer can select MSE purchase Preference while creating the Bid document(as per the applicable GoI guidelines). Since the functionality of splitting of orders in service Bids is still under development, full quantity order can be placed on eligible MSE Bidder falling in L1+15% range who agrees to match L1 price.
Besides L1 selection, the buyer can also choose Least Cost Method(LCS) or Quality & Cost Based Selection(QCBS) as method of evaluation of bids depending upon the type of service.
(i) for both LCS and QCBS, The buyer will have to declare in the bid document the details of technical parameters on which scoring will be done and also the documents required for such assessment.
(ii) The bidders will get an option to upload the documents against each parameter as sought by the Buyer.
(iii) In case of Single Packet Bids, only L1 based evaluation is available and LCS and QCBS cannot be used.
There can be multiple reasons for this:
1. It is possible that the service categories selected by buyer are not enabled for bunching by GeM. Only the categories which are enabled by GeM for bunching can be bunched together. Buyer may raise the request for enabling the bunching of services by sending a mail to request-bunch@gem.gov.in
2. Please ensure that buyer has selected “Intent of Buying” as “Bid”for bunching multiple services.
3. Contract Start Date & Contract End Date selected by buyer during creation of bid should be same for all the schedules. Multiple schedules with different Start & End dates can not be bunched together.
Below are the criteria for bunching of service categories:
1. Buyer can bunch multiple items within the same service category with each other.
2. Categories which have been enabled for bunching by GeM can be bunched together. The criterion for enabling the bunching is mainly the nature of services & the possibilities of having common service providers for these services.
3. “Custom Bid for Services” can not be bunched with any other category.
4. Buyer can bunch multiple items of“Custom Bid for Services” with each other.
Least Cost Selection is a method for selecting a service provider, wherein the buyer declares minimum qualifying marks for various technical parameters in the bid document.Financial bids are opened only for technically qualified bidders. The L-1 offer from the technically qualified bidder is selected for the award of the contract.
LCS method is largely similar to the L-1 selection method. While in L-1 method, buyer can define the set of pre-qualification conditions (such as turnover/experience/capacity etc.), all of which act as a pass or fail criteria individually. No additional weightage is given to a better qualified bidder. E.g., if minimum average turnover condition is Rs. 1 Cr in last 3 FY, & there are 2 bidders with the average turnover of Rs. 1 Cr & 10 Cr, both bidders are equally eligible to get the award based on their financial bids. However, in case of LCS, the buyer can award score for each qualifying parameter as indicated in the bid document and only those bidders qualify whose total technical score is more than the threshold value.
Below are a few points to keep in mind while deciding the technical criteria in LCS method:
• Technical criteria should be relevant & proportional to the requirement of quality of assignment.
• Selection process should be rigorous enough so that no technically unsatisfactory bid should be able to get through a loose criterion.
• On the other hand, the selection process should not be highly restrictive so that no technically satisfactory bid is ruled out due to a very stringent criterion.
• The evaluation methodology for technical criteria should be as objective as possible. In case of any subjective criterion, a system of grading the responses & their marking may be laid down in the bid document.
There is no prescribed limit for qualifying marks, but normally this can be in a range of 60 to 80 marks out of 100 and can vary as per buyer’s requirements. Similarly, there is no prescribed limit on the number of technical parameters for the purpose of evaluation, but normally this can be in the range of 4 to 6 and can vary as per buyer’s requirements. The maximum marks for all the technical parameters must add up to 100. The buyer has an option to set a cutoff mark for individual technical parameter as well as an overall cutoff mark.
Quality & Cost Based Selection (QCBS) in Services is a method of selection which utilises a competitive process among Service Providers and takes into account the quality as well as cost of the Service offerings for the selection of a successful Service Provider. Service Providers are assessed based on weightage based evaluation of technical and cost based parameters as per the buyer requirements.
In case of QCBS, the weightage is given to both Technical & Financial ranking of the bidder, to find out the successful bidder. However, in case of LCS, no weightage is given to the technical score/ranking of bidder. The technical score in LCS acts only as a Pass or Fail criterion and the final selection is based on the least cost among the technically qualified bidders.
During Technical evaluation, Buyer should verify if the service provider is exempted from submission of EMD. If not, Buyer may choose to disqualify such bidder.
If the Buyer is of the opinion that the rate quoted by L1 bidder appears to be on lower side or unworkable, he can seek price justification from that bidder. After getting the response from the bidder, the buyer can decide wether the quoted rate is unworkable and accordingly that bidder can be disqualified.In such case, the next eligible Bidder will be considered for award of contract. However, this functionality is, at present, not available for QCBS, LCS, and single-packet bids.
In case of multiple L1 bidders against a service bid, the buyer will have to use 'Run L1 selection' feature wherein the system would randomly identify a L1 seller. It works on pseudorandom number generator algorithms which is the system generator based on linear congruential algorithm.
(i)If the buyer has selected MSE purchase preference then Run L1 option will give priority to MSE L1 bidders.
(ii) If the buyer has not selected MSE purchase preference, the Run L1 option will choose the successful bidder among all MSE and non MSE L1 bidders.
(i) In case L1 bidder is MSE then the buyer can proceed for negotiation with that bidder.
(ii) In case L1 bidder is non MSE then the buyer will have to first negotiate with that bidder and then price match request is sent to MSE bidders in L1+15% band.
Yes, RA (Bid to RA) is possible for services with categories that have a minimum floor price configured. However, during the RA, if the minimum floor price is reached, no further reduction is possible in the offered price.
If Buyer Clicks on "Select Random 10 L1 bidders", the system will randomly select 10 L1 Bidders for evaluation. If the number of qualified bidders after evaluation is three or more, the Buyer can confirm and notify and proceed further. Incase, number of qualified bidders is less than three then the Buyer will have to select another batch of ten bidders by using the "Select Random 10 L1 bidders" button and this process will continue till there are minimum three qualified bidders.
No, the Minimum Wages provided by the buyer are exclusive of GST. The applicable GST is added by the GeM platform while displaying the Offered Price on the market.
SDAC is an aknowledgement for the services rendered by the Service provider. The consignee indicates the applicable deductions in the SDAC and forwards it for release of payment.
After an Invoice is generated by the Service Provider and Consignee issued the Service Delivery Acceptance Certificate, the Buyer may draft the Bill and process the same for payment.
The buyer cannot revoke the contract cancellation request If the Service Provider has already taken the action against such request (either "accept" or "reject").
The buyer is allowed to increase or decrease the order quantity by 25% at the time of issue of contract.However, after issue of contract, the buyer can only increase the order quantity by 25%. For ongoing contracts, decrease in quantity is not allowed.
In service contracts, the buyer has an option to either increase the quantity or increase the duration of the contract so that the total variation in the contract doesn't exceed 25%.
Yes, Buyer can define the payment terms on the basis of milestones while creating a bid. Service provider will raise the invoice based on the payment terms defined in the bid document/contract.
Yes, Consignee has an option to either process or Reject Service Provider's Service Invoice.Consignee shall have to mention a reason for such rejection in the form of Text.Service Provider shall be able to resubmit the Rejected Invoice as a supplementary invoice.
Buyers will get the optional Fund Blocking option if it meets the below criteria.
1. Order should be in demand state i.e., blocking should not be done by the user
2. The order confirmation date should be >= 1 Jan And First billing cycle falls after 15th March or in next financial year
Buyer will get the top-up option under the “Manage Budget” section in Order Summary Page. They can also check the top-up, unblocking, settled history for their orders.
If there are more than one billing cycles, the buyer needs to block an amount equivalent to one billing cycle at the time of order placement. If there is only one billing cycle, the entire contract value needs to be blocked.
Service Level Agreement (“SLA” or “Agreement”) is an agreement between the Buyer and the Service Provider.The purpose of this agreement is to outline the scope of work, stakeholders’ obligations and terms and conditions of all services covered as mutually understood by the stakeholders.
If a particular service category is not available on GeM , service provider can ask the Buyer who uses that service to make a request to GeM for introduction of the particular service category. Service Providers can also write to GeM for adding any service category.
Executed projects of Government/PSU Companies for similar Services
are considered as valid project experiences. The buyer also has an option to specify the project experience as per his requirement through ATC.
QCBS as a method of selection is generally used for Consulting or highly technical and complex projects. However, DOE vide OM F.1/1/2021-PPD dated 29th October 2021 has now permitted use of QCBS even for non-consulting services where the Estimated value of procurement doesn't exceed Rs. 10 Crores or where the procurement has been declared to be quality oriented procurement (QOP). QCBS has been provided as an option to Buyers in all the applicable Services on GeM.
To avoid incidents of refusal to execute the contract by service providers, a new feature has been introduced wherein system selected bidder is asked to confirm within 72 hours whether he is willing to execute the contract. If he says No or does not reply then the system enables Re-Run L1 option for selection of another L1 bidder. Suitable action is taken against the defaulter bidder as per the Incident Management Policy of GeM.
In case of mismatch between the prices mentioned in the Price breakup format and the total quoted amount in the financial Bid, the quoted amount will prevail.
Yes, Service Provider can upload the service(s) catalogue without project experience for most of the services. However, for very few services, it is mandatory for the Bidder to upload the project experience along with the catalogue. In such cases, the system will prompt the service provider to upload project experience.
The Service Offering is generally approved in 5 working days from date of catalogue upload provided the details submitted are in order and the credentials are validated online.
In cases where documents/certificates/licences cannot be validated online, the approval time may exceed 5 working days due to manual verification.
Each service offering goes through a process of Quality Check at GeM. Service provider's offering might be pending for approval, the status of the same can be checked on the "Search Offerings" page under Catalogue section on GeM.
Yes, there is an option for "Deactivation of Service Catalogues" on the service offering page of any service. Once a catalogue is deactivated ,the Service Provider will not be able to reactivate the offerings for 15 days.
Normaly, Offers from Consortium/JV bidders are allowed only for complex and highly technical assignments. The buyer must indicate in the bid document through ATC if the bids from Consortium/JV bidders are allowed for a particular service bid.
As per DoE OM No.F.6/1/2023-PPD dated 6th Jan. 2023, the minimum service charges for commission based services has been fixed as 3.85 %. Same has been implemented by GeM for commission based services.No bidder is allowed to quote less than the minimum service charge as mentioned above for commission based services.
Service providers can view 'minimum floor price' while participating in the bid and enter price offerings equal to or more than the minimum floor defined by the Buyer .
New on GeM
