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18. Rule 173 of General Financial Rules, 2017 reads as follows:

"Transparency, competition, fairness and elimination of arbitrariness in the procurement process: All Government purchases should be made in a transparent, competitive and fair manner, to secure best value for money. This will also enable the prospective bidders to formulate and send their competitive bids with confidence. Some of the measures for ensuring the above are as follows:- (i) the text of the bidding document should be self-contained and comprehensive without any ambiguities. All essential information, which a bidder needs for sending responsive bid, should be clearly spelt out in the bidding document in simple language. The condition of prior turnover and prior experience may be relaxed for Startups (as defined by Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion) subject to meeting of quality & technical specifications and making suitable provisions in the bidding document. The bidding document should contain, inter alia. (a) Description and Specifications of goods including the nature, quantity, time and place or places of delivery. (b) the criteria for eligibility and qualifications to be met by the bidders such as minimum level of experience, past performance, technical capability, manufacturing facilities and financial position etc or limitation for participation of the bidders, if any. (c) eligibility criteria for goods indicating any legal restrictions or conditions about the origin of goods etc which may required to be met by the successful bidder. (d) the procedure as well as date, time and place for sending the bids. (e) date, time and place of opening of the bid. (e) Criteria for evaluation of bids (f) special terms affecting performance, if any. (g) Essential terms of the procurement contract (h) Bidding Documents should include a clause that "if a firm quotes NIL charges/ consideration, the bid shall be treated as unresponsive and will not be considered". (ii) Any other information which the procuring entity considers necessary for the bidders to submit their bids. (iii) Modification to bidding document: (a) In case any modification is made to the bidding document or any clarification is issued which materially affects the terms contained in the bidding document, the procuring entity shall publish or communicate such notification or clarification in the same manner as the publication or communication of the initial bidding document was made. (b) In case a clarification or modification is issued to the bidding document, the procuring entity shall, before the last date for submission of bids, extend such time limit, if, in its opinion more time is required by bidders to take into account the clarification or modification, as the case may be, while submitting their bids. (c) Any bidder who has submitted his bid in response to the original invitation shall have the opportunity to modify or resubmit it, as the case may be, or withdraw such bid in case the modification to bidding document materially affect the essential terms of the procurement, within the period initially allotted or such extended time as may be allowed for submission of bids, after the modifications are made to the bidding document by the procuring entity: Provided that the bid last submitted or the bid as modified by the bidder shall be considered for evaluation (iv) Suitable provision should be kept in the bidding document to enable a bidder to question the bidding conditions, bidding process and/ or rejection of its bid. The reasons for rejecting a tender or non-issuing a tender document to a prospective bidder must be disclosed where enquiries are made by the bidder. (v) Suitable provision for settlement of disputes, if any, emanating from the resultant contract, should be kept in the bidding document. (vi) The bidding document should indicate clearly that the resultant contract will be interpreted under Indian Laws. (vii) The bidders should be given reasonable time to prepare and send their bids.
(viii) The bids should be opened in public and authorised representatives of the bidders should be permitted to attend the bid opening. (ix) The specifications of the required goods should be clearly stated without any ambiguity so that the prospective bidders can send meaningful bids. In order to attract sufficient number of bidders, the specification should be broad based to the extent feasible (x) Pre-bid conference: In case of turnkey contract(s) or contract(s) of special nature for procurement of sophisticated and costly equipment or wherever felt necessary, a suitable provision is to be kept in the bidding documents for one or more rounds of pre-bid conference for clarifying issues and clearing doubts, if any, about the specifications and other allied technical details of the plant, equipment and machinery etc. projected in the bidding document. The date, time and place of pre-bid conference should be indicated in the bidding document. This date should be sufficiently ahead of bid opening date. The records of such conference shall be intimated to all bidders and, shall also be exhibited on the website(s) where tender was published. (xi) Criteria for determining responsiveness are to be taken into account for evaluating the bids such as: (a) time of delivery. (b) Performance/ efficiency/ environmental characteristics. (c) the terms of payment and of guarantees in respect of the subject matter of procurement (d) price. (e) cost of operating, maintaining and repairing etc. (xii) Bids received should be evaluated in terms of the conditions already incorporated in the bidding documents; No new condition which was not incorporated in the bidding documents should be brought in for evaluation of the bids. Determination of bid's responsiveness should be based on the contents of the bid itself without recourse to extrinsic evidence. (xiii) Bidders should not be permitted to alter or modify their bids after expiry of the deadline for receipt of bids. (xiv) Negotiation with bidders after bid opening must be severely discouraged. However, in exceptional circumstances where price negotiation against an ad-hoc procurement is necessary due to some unavoidable circumstances, the same may be resorted to only with the lowest evaluated responsive bidder. (xv) In the Rate Contract system, where a number of firms are brought on Rate Contract for the same item, negotiation as well as counter offering of rates are permitted to the bidders and for this purpose special permission has been given to the Directorate General of Supplies and Disposals (DGS&D). (xvi) Contract should ordinarily be awarded to the lowest evaluated bidder whose bid has been found to be responsive and who is eligible and qualified to perform the contract satisfactorily as per the terms and conditions incorporated in the corresponding bidding document.

a)effective competition is lacking. b)all Bids and Proposals are not substantially responsive to the requirements of the Procurement Documents. c)the Bids'/Proposals' prices are substantially higher that the updated cost estimate or available budget; or d. none of the technical Proposals meets the minimum technical qualifying score. (xx) Lack of competition in rule 173(xix) shall not be determined solely on the basis of the number of Bidders. Even when only one Bid is submitted, the process may be considered valid provided following conditions are satisfied: a)the procurement was satisfactorily advertised and sufficient time was given for submission of bids. B) the qualification criteria were not unduly restrictive; and c) prices are reasonable in comparison to market values (xxi) When a limited or open tender results in only one effective offer, it shall be treated as a single tender contract. (xxii) In case a purchase Committee is constituted to purchase or recommend the procurement, no member of the purchase Committee should be reporting directly to any other member of such Committee in case estimated value of procurement exceeds Rs. 25 lakhs."