Indian Defence Review

Defence Procurement Procedure – 2008 stipulates that SQR:

As technical evaluation entails comparative performance of competing equipment, it is absolutely essential that SQR be spelt out in quantifiable terms. Terms like ‘compactness’, ‘excellent running characteristics’, ‘quick acceleration’, ’strong and sturdy’, ‘optimum mobility’ and ‘prolonged duration’ are indeterminate and subjective in nature. Despite the above mentioned comprehensive instructions, SQR continue to be imprecise, vague and unverifiable.

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Poorly conceived, formulated and drafted SQR cause immense delays, create confusion, lend themselves to misinterpretations and vitiate the environment. At times the whole process has to be aborted at an advanced stage due to infirmities of SQR. Although faulty formulation of SQR is known to be the commonest cause of non-fructification of most proposals, no sponsoring directorate has ever been held accountable for its shoddy work, resulting in wastage of time and resources.

Issuance of Request for Proposals

Service Headquarters (SHQ) prepares RFP in draft form and submits to the Acquisition Wing where it is vetted by the concerned Technical Manager, the Acquisition Manager and the Finance Manager. Thereafter, it is issued to selected vendors by the Technical Manager.

“¦technical evaluation entails comparative performance of competing equipment, it is absolutely essential that SQR be spelt out in quantifiable terms.

RFP consists of four parts. The first part elaborates the general requirement of the equipment, quantity required, time frame for deliveries, environmental parameters for functioning, conditions of usage and maintenance, requirement for training, Engineering Support Package, offset obligations (if applicable) and warranty/guarantee conditions. It spells out procedure for submission of offers. It also specifies date and time by which proposals have to be submitted. Part II incorporates SQR and describes technical evaluation methodology in detail. Part III outlines all major commercial aspects, including payment terms, performance guarantees, guarantees against warranty services and standard contract terms along with special contractual conditions, if any. In the final part, criteria for evaluation and acceptance, both in terms of technical and commercial contents are spelt out in detail.

Additionally, in cases involving Transfer of Technology (ToT), RFP spells out the requirement in range and depth of the technology required. For cases entailing ToT for maintenance infrastructure, RFP contains a list of Indian firms from which the foreign vendor has to select one to provide base repairs and spares for the entire life cycle of the equipment.

It will thus be seen that RFP is central to the procurement system as it sets out terms and conditions of the complete process at the outset. Being a government communication it carries considerable sanctity and lays down ground rules to be followed by the procurement agency and the vendors. Therefore, there should be no flaws in it. Vendors need to be absolutely clear about all terms and conditions to prepare their technical and commercial proposals, as no changes are permitted after submission.

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It has, however, been seen that inadequate attention is paid to the preparation of this most vital document. Most RFP suffer from incomplete information and imprecise statements, resulting in protracted correspondence with vendors. At times, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) is forced to retract RFP due to material incongruities. Instead of holding the concerned officials accountable for their sloppy work, SHQ is asked to submit fresh draft RFP as a matter of routine.