Such consultants will also have to show how much local sourcing they have in their service to bring in sync with the government’s public procurement guidelines.To be sure, the anti-corruption pact for consultants is not legally enforceable. However, it has also been made mandatory for builders contractors working on projects for individual public sector units such as the National Highway Authority of India.

Local sourcing in consultancy operations would mean employment of local personnel and use of local equipment, wherever required. The ministry of road transport and highways has issued a final draft of the proposed amendment in the standard request for proposal (RFP) document for detailed project report (DPR) consultancy work.

It also proposes stricter penal provisions for putting out false information about individuals and firms, including a ban on working on government infrastructure projects for two years. In fact, consultancy firms would have to return salaries claimed for persons employed in the firm where information is found to be false and incorrect.

The draft amendment would be finalized and notified by the ministry early next month after completing stakeholder consultation.

“The changes proposed by road ministry have legal implications which are difficult to comment on,” said a consultant from one of the four big consultancy firms on condition of anonymity. Other consultants refused to go on record on the matter as it directly clashed with their work profile but said the proposed changes should improve transparency. Effective and unbiased implementation held the key, they said.

As per the proposed amendment, consultants bidding for preparing DPRs for the ministry’s highway and other infrastructure projects will have to comply with the provisions of an Integrity Pact (IP). Signed documents in this regard along with technical proposals should be included as part of the contract agreement.

The IP envisages an agreement between prospective vendors/bidders, and the government and its agencies, committing both sides not to resort to any corrupt practice in any aspect of the contract at any stage. Only bidders who commit themselves to IP would be considered for bids and any violation would disqualify the bidder and excluded from future business dealings.

The changes in the bid document for consultants would also require the bidder to submit along with its technical proposal, a self-certificate that the services offered meet the minimum local content requirement of up to 50%.

In case the consultant has not submitted the certificate, it will be treated as ‘non-local supplier’ and accordingly its bid would go down in purchase preference under public procurement regulations.

The Integrity Pact also provides for empanelment of independent external monitors (IEM). The IEMs would review independently and objectively whether and to what extent the parties comply with the obligations under the IP.

The local content regulation for consultants is further proposed to be tightened by making a certificate in this regard (specifying local content in services) from the statutory auditor or cost auditor mandatory in cases where procurement of a value is in excess of Rs. 10 crore.

While non-local service providers would be allowed to participate in the bid, they would lose out once purchase preference regulations are invoked giving first preference of bidders with high levels of local content. The changes proposed in bid guidelines assumes significance given that the India plans 13,800 km of highway construction in the current financial year amid claims of cost over-runs. Stricter monitoring of work progress and transparent qualifying criteria and eligibility regulations are expected are expected to weed out non-serious players from preparing blueprint and developing critical infrastructure for the country.

The proposed DPR consultancy regulations have also given specific time frames for work to be undertaken in road sector projects for finalizing the DPR unlike earlier that where all DPRs had a completion period of 300 days.

Accordingly, it has been proposed that for widening and upgradation of 2 lane highways, work on DPR has to be completed with 10-15 months; for 4 to 6 lane highways – 12-18 months; greenfield expressways – 18 to 24 months. More time would be given to complete work in hilly regions and for tunnelling and long span bridges.

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Updated: 24 Oct 2023, 09:38 PM IST