Assam Public Procurement Act, 2017
No: 24 Dated: Apr, 11 2017
THE ASSAM PUBLIC PROCUREMENT ACT, 2017
ASSAM ACT NO. XXIV OF 2017
An Act to establish legal foundations for procedures for procurement by public entities so as to ensure - timely delivery of intended outcome with efficiency; economy; integrity and accountability; transparency, fail and equitable treatment of bidders; public confidence regarding good governance in the process and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
Preamble:- Whereas, it is expedient to establish legal foundations for procedures for procurement by public entities so as to ensure, -
(i) timely delivery of its intended outcomes with efficiency, economy, professionalism and public accountability from its officers and staff;
(ii) the highest standards of transparency, fairness, equality towards its bidders;
(iii) support to policies of the State on social, economic and environmental issues; and
(iv) assurance to public and other stakeholders regarding probity and integrity of the process.
It is hereby enacted in the Sixty-eighth Year of the Republic of India, as follows :
CHAPTER I
Preliminary
1. Short title, extent and commencement. - (1) This Act may be called the Assam Public Procurement Act, 2017.
(2) It shall extend to the whole of the State of Assam.
(3) It shall come into force on such date as the State Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint :
Provided that different dates may be appointed for different provisions of this Act and any reference in any such provision to the commencement of this Act shall be construed as a reference to the coming into force of that provision.
2. Definitions. - In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires, -
(a) "bid" means a formal offer made in pursuance of an invitation by a procuring entity and includes any tender, proposal (technical or financial) or quotation;
(b) "bidder" means any person, company, firm, agency, institution, etc., participating in a procurement process of a procuring entity for procurement of goods, works or services;
(c) "bidder registration documents" means the documents issued by a procuring entity, including any amendments thereto, that set out the terms and conditions of registration proceedings and includes the invitation to register;
(d) "bidding documents" means documents for procurement of goods, works or services issued by the procuring entity, including any amendments thereto, that set out the terms and conditions of the given procurement and includes the invitation to bid; The term "bidding document" also includes the "request for proposal" and "request for quotation" documents used for hiring consultancy and non-consultancy services;
(e) "bid security" means a security provided to the procuring entity by a bidder for securing the fulfillment of any obligation in terms of the provisions of the bidding documents;
(f) "competent authority" means a person, body of persons, organs or an agency competent to take actions as may be referred to or directed to it by the Authority under this Act or the Rules or Guidelines made hereunder or by the provisions of any other law for the time being in force;
(g) "e-procurement" means the electronic process where in the physical tendering activity is carried out online using the Internet and associated technologies;
(h) "electronic reverse auction" means an online real-time purchasing technique utilized by the procuring entity to select the successful submission, which involves presentation by bidders of successively lowered bids during a scheduled period of time and the automatic evaluation of bids;
(i) "Framework agreement procedure" means a procedure conducted in two stages: a first stage to select a supplier (or suppliers) or a contractor (or contractors) to be a party (or parties) to a framework agreement with a procuring entity, and a second stage to award a procurement contract under the framework agreement to a supplier or contractor party;
(j) "Framework agreement" means an agreement between the procuring entity and the selected supplier (or suppliers) or contractor (or contractors) concluded upon completion of the first stage of the framework agreement procedure;
(k) "Closed framework agreement" means a framework agreement to which no supplier or contractor or State Agency acting as Consortium on behalf of PPP registered MSE to the framework agreement that is not initially a party to the framework agreement may subsequently become a party;
(l) "Open framework agreement" means a framework agreement to which a supplier (or suppliers) or a contractor (or contractors) in addition to the initial parties may subsequently become a party or parties;
(m) "Framework agreement procedure with second-stage competition" means a procedure under an open framework agreement or a closed framework agreement with more than one supplier or contractor in which certain terms and conditions of the procurement that cannot be established with sufficient precision when the framework agreement is concluded are to be established or refined through a second-stage competition;
(n) "Framework agreement procedure without second-stage competition" means a procedure under a closed framework agreement in which all terms and conditions of the procurement are established when the framework agreement is concluded;
(o) "goods" includes all articles, material, commodities, electricity, livestock, furniture, fixtures, raw material, spares, instruments, software, machinery, equipment, industrial plant, vehicles, aircraft, ships, railway rolling stock and any other category of goods, whether in solid, liquid or gaseous form, purchased or otherwise acquired for the use of a procuring entity as well as services or works incidental to the supply of the goods if the value of services or works or both does not exceed that of the goods themselves;
(p) "invitation to bid" means a document published by the procuring entity inviting bids relating to the subject-matter of procurement and any amendment thereto and includes notice inviting tender and request for proposal;
(q) "notification" means a notification published in the Official Gazette;
(r) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this Act;
(s) "pre-qualification" means the procedure set out to identify, prior to inviting bids, the bidders that are qualified;
(t) "pre-qualification documents" means the documents issued by a procuring entity, including any amendments thereto, that set out the terms and conditions of the pre-qualification proceedings and includes the invitation to pre-qualify;
(u) "procurement" or "public procurement" means the acquisition by purchase, lease, licence or otherwise of works, goods or services, including award of Public Private Partnership projects, by a procuring entity whether directly or through an agency with which a contract for procurement services is entered into, but does not include any acquisition without consideration, and "procure" or "procured" shall be construed accordingly;
(v) "procurement contract" means a contract entered into between the procuring entity and a successful bidder concerning the subject-matter of procurement;
(w) "procurement process" means the process of procurement extending from the issue of invitation to pre-qualify or to register or to bid till the award of the procurement contract or cancellation of the procurement process, as the case may be;
(x) "procuring entity" means an entity referred to in sub-section (2) of section 3;
(y) "Public Private Partnership" means an arrangement between the State Government, statutory entity or any other government owned entity on one side and a private sector entity on the other, for the provision of public assets or public services or both, through investments being made or management being undertaken, or both investments being made and management being undertaken, by the private sector entity, for a specified period of time, where there is well defined allocation of risk between the private sector and the State Government, statutory entity or any other government owned entity, as the case may be, and the private entity receives performance linked payments that conform (or are bench-marked) to specified and pre-determined performance standards, measurable by the State Government, statutory entity or any other government owned entity, as the case may be, or its representative;
(z) "rate contract" means an agreement between a procuring entity and one or more bidders which specifies the terms and conditions including the price, for the supply of a subject-matter of procurement required on a recurring basis;
(za) "registered bidder" means any bidder who is on a list of registered bidders of the procuring entity maintained under section 19;
(zb) "services" means any subject-matter of procurement other than goods or works and includes physical, maintenance, professional, intellectual, consultancy and advisory services or any service classified or declared as such by a procuring entity and does not include appointment of any person made by any procuring entity;
(zc) "subject-matter of procurement" means any item of procurement whether in the form of goods, services or works;
(zd) "works" means all works associated with the construction, reconstruction, site preparation, demolition, repair, maintenance, or renovation or railways roads, highways or a building, an infrastructure, or structure or an installation or any construction work relating to excavation, drilling, installation of equipment and materials, as well as services or goods incidental or consequential to the works if the value of those services or goods does not exceed that of the works themselves;
(ze) "State Government" means the Government of Assam;
(zf) "Swiss Challenge" means a method of procurement in which an unsolicited proposal for a government project is received and third party are allowed to challenge the original proposal through open bidding, and then the original proponent is given a chance to counter-match the most advantageous/most competitive offer.