Section 80 in Rajasthan Public Procurement Rules, 2012
80. Code of integrity for procuring entities and bidders.
(1)No officer or employee of a procuring entity or a person participating in a procurement process shall act in contravention of the code of integrity.(2)The code of integrity referred to sub-rule (1) includes:-(a)prohibiting -(i)any offer, solicitation or acceptance of any bribe, reward or gift or any material benefit, either directly or indirectly, in exchange for an unfair advantage in the procurement process or to otherwise influence the procurement process;(ii)any omission, including a misrepresentation that misleads or attempts to mislead so as to obtain a financial or other benefit or avoid an obligation;(iii)any collusion, bid rigging or anti-competitive behaviour to impair the transparency, fairness and progress of the procurement process;(iv)improper use of information shared between the procuring entity and the bidders with an intent to gain unfair advantage in the procurement process or for personal gain;(v)any financial or business transactions between the bidder and any officer or employee of the procuring entity;(vi)any coercion including impairing or harming or threatening to do the same, directly or indirectly, to any party or to its property to influence the procurement process;(vii)any obstruction of any investigation or audit of a procurement process;(b)the procuring entity or bidders shall disclose conflicts of interest, if there are any;(c)the bidder shall disclose any previous transgressions with any entity in India or any other country during the last three years or of any debarment by any other procuring entity.(3)The detailed Code of Integrity. - The detailed Code of Integrity for personnel involved in procurement and for bidders is given below:-(a)All procurement personnel shall maintain an unimpeachable standard of integrity in all business relationships, both inside and outside their offices. Ethical conduct shall apply in all dealings with bidders or prospective bidders. Procurement personnel shall never use their authority or office for personal gain and will seek to uphold and enhance the standing of their department/ organisation.(b)All individuals are responsible for the regularity of actions taken by them in the course of their official duties, and any staff member that takes action contrary to the Act, these rules and other relevant rules/ regulations may be held personally responsible and financially liable for the consequences of such action.(c)The standard of conduct for all personnel of the procuring entity involved in procurement actions includes, but is not limited to:(i)Personnel shall not allow any bidders to have access to information on a particular acquisition, before such information is available to the public at large,(ii)Personnel shall not intentionally use unnecessarily restrictive or "tailored" specifications, terms of reference or statements of work that can discourage competition,(iii)Personnel shall not solicit or accept, directly or indirectly any promise of future employment from anyone who has sought or is seeking to obtain business from the procuring entity,(iv)Personnel shall not have a financial interest in any bidder(s) responding to a procuring entity's bidding exercise and are prohibited from any involvement in the procurement action,(v)Personnel shall not disclose proprietary and source selection information, directly or indirectly, to any person other than a person authorised to receive such information.(vi)Procuring entity's personnel shall seek to treat all bidders in a fair and equitable manner in line with the principle of fairness, integrity and transparency in the procurement process.(vii)During the solicitation phase, all bidders must receive identical information. Any clarifications to the solicitation documents must be provided at approximately the same time, in writing, to all bidders;(viii)Specifications should be linked to function and to performance as much as possible. They must not be limit competition nor be unnecessarily restrictive;(ix)During the evaluation, the evaluation criteria specified in the bidding documents must be applied in the same manner for each evaluated offer. Under no circumstances shall new evaluation criteria not mentioned in the bidding documents be introduced during the evaluation process.(x)In cases where the personal interest of the procurement official is in conflict with the interest of the organization, such cases shall be immediately reported by the concerned official to appropriate authority.(xi)The procurement officials shall not entertain any favour, recreation, presents, services, etc. by the potential bidders.(xii)The interest of the Procuring Entity shall be protected under all circumstances while dealing with information and information sources by the procurement officials.(xiii)It shall be ensured by procurement officials that all suppliers and service providers get the same correct information.(xiv)Any information about competitors shall not be solicited by suppliers and service providers.(xv)All bids shall be handled confidentially by procurement officials.(xvi)It shall be ensured that selection of suppliers is done according to predetermined objective basis and is not influenced by personal reasons attributable to concerned officials in any manner.(d)Conflict of interest. - A conflict of interest is considered to be a situation in which a party has interests that could improperly influence that party's performance of official duties or responsibilities, contractual obligations, or compliance with applicable laws and regulations.(i)The situations in which a procuring entity's personnel may considered to be in conflict of interest includes, but not limited to, following:-
