The Delhi Government scrapped the tender process for the procurement of 1,000 low floor buses only after a comprehensive report by the Deputy Commissioner DTC, exposing the wrongdoings being carried out under the direct supervision of Transport Minister Kailash Gehlot. The AAP Government reportedly violated the CVC guidelines and General Financial Rules (GFR) in the procurement of the buses. The document accessed by The Pioneer from Government sources revealed that consultant Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System (DIMTS) Ltd. and Tender Committee of DTC did not correctly evaluate financial bids. "The file noting was also endorsed by then Additional Chief Secretary (Transport) but Minister did not himself sign the file noting.
Instead, the Secretary to Minister signed the report with a noting that ‘the Chairman DTC and Minister (Transport) has seen it’," they said. "Interestingly, the deviations from the specifications of the RFP in violation of the rules, as recommended by Tender Committee headed by Gehlot, were already approved by the Managing Director, DTC and the Transport Minister himself on November 6, 2019, a day before it was placed before the DTC Board for approval on November 7, 2019," they stated.
While highlighting the file noting dated November 27, 2019 of the Deputy Commissioner (DTC), the sources stated that the DTC had floated the tender for procurement of 1,000 buses and it was a single tender for supply of 1000 BS-IV or latest buses. "In the pre-bid, the quantity of 1000 buses was bifurcated into 400 BS-IV buses and 600 BS-VI buses but tender still remained one only and bidders could have made bid for entire quantity of these buses of both types.
Merely bifurcation of two types of buses, did not change the RFP into two separate tenders," they informed. "M/s TATA Motors Ltd. made a bid for 600 buses only and, therefore, its bid should have been summarily rejected," they claimed. "After rejection of Tata Motors, there would have been a single bid of M/s JBM and examination of this tender would have been on an entirely different footing," they said. "It is also noted that DTC invited M/s JBM for negotiation for BS-IV buses by arriving at a justified price of Rs.80,96,470 of this category of bus on the basis of rates of TATA which never made any bid for this category.
The rates of TATA offered for BS-VI were rationalized by DTC which could not have been done for this comparison. M/s JBM did not agree with the offer but this action of DTC is without any justification and the price negotiation with M/s JBM is violative of GFR and CVC guidelines," they said. "Interestingly, there was a specific requirement of front facing seats in RFP but both Consultant (DIMTS) and DTC Tender Committee did not reject JBM bid for want of this condition. Since buses offered by M/s JBM did not have front facing seats as per condition of RFP, its bid should have been rejected at techno-commercial stage itself and there was no justification to open financial bid of a bidder whose bus did not meet specifications," sources said.
The RFP contained a proforma for deviation but M/s JBM did not mention any deviation from the specifications and therefore, DTC should not have considered the bid.
This Tender process has been vitiated and DTC must inquire into the matter and fix responsibility for the lapses, they said. For following reasons, it is recommended that DTC should scrap tender and should call fresh bids without any delay, sources further added.