Tax liability of government contractors or suppliers should be examined properly to check leakage of any revenue, the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has said. 

The probity watchdog, in a fresh set of guidelines issued to all Central government ministries or departments, has said that award of contracts on nomination basis or on 'single tender' basis should be avoided except for unavoidable circumstances such as natural calamities and emergencies. 

"Tax evasion in the procurement contracts could be another area of concern; therefore, it is necessary that tax liability of the contractors or suppliers is examined properly," the CVC said. 

It has prescribed a check list to ensure duplicate and over payments are not made to the contractor or supplier, payment for extra or substituted items have been made after due approval of the competent authority, and recovery of mandatory taxes and duties is being done as per the contract agreement. 

The departments have been asked to ensure whether or not reimbursement of service tax, excise duty etc. is being done after obtaining the actual proof of depositing the same with authorities concerned. 

"Award of contracts on nomination basis, which is also called a single tender is to be resorted to only under exceptional circumstances such as natural calamities and emergencies or there were no bids to repeated tenders or where only one supplier has been licensed (proprietary item) in respect of goods sought to be procured," it said. 

The CVC said that cardinal principle of public procurement is to procure the material, services or works of the specified quality, at the most competitive prices and, in a fair, just and transparent manner. 

"To achieve this end, it is essential to have uniform and well documented policy guidelines in the organisation, so that this vital activity is executed in a well-coordinated manner with least time and cost overruns. 

"In some organisations, procurement manual is either not in place or has not been updated for years together, which renders the system of procurement ad-hoc and arbitrary," the anti-corruption watchdog said. 

"A codified procurement manual containing the detailed procurement procedures and guidelines needs to be prepared by the organisations so that there is systematic and uniform approach in the decision-making," it added. 

An integrated procurement policy in the form of procurement manual helps the organisations in circumventing the possibility of corruption and would also ensure smoother and faster decision-making, it said. 

The CVC asked the departments to ensure that they have updated procurement (work,purchase,services) manual. 

It has asked departments to engage consultants in a transparent manner. "Earlier public organisations were undertaking planning and supervisory activities in-house. Now-a-days, in the era of large-scale infrastructure development, the in-house resources available with public organisations are gradually being found to be inadequate. 

"Therefore, there has been substantial outsourcing of services such as architectural services, preparation of Detailed Project Report (DPR), project management consultancy, and quality assurance etc," it said. 

The consultant should be appointed in a transparent and competitive manner for need based and specialised jobs. The agreement should contain adequate provisions for penalising the defaulting consultant keeping in view the fact that a consultant's role is only advisory and recommendatory. 

Consultant's fee should be based on some fixed value of the contract, the CVC said citing its earlier order in this regard. 

It said that departments and contractors should also execute an integrity pact affirming none of them would indulge in unfair practise while implementing the contract. (PTI - Economic Times)