Odisha relaxes terms and condition in Covid-19 vaccine global tender

Odisha Cabinet on Friday amended certain terms and condition in the tender documents, an official said.

In an effort to facilitate

more bidders to take part in the global tender for COVID-19 vaccine procurement by the Odisha government, the state Cabinet on Friday amended certain terms and condition in the tender documents, an official said.

The amended approval in this regard was made at the Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. The state government on May 14 had floated a global tender for procurement of 3.80 crore of vaccine doses to inoculate its people.

"Relaxation has been approved in the EMD, bid security and liquidated damages to attract more vaccine manufacturers within the country and abroad," Chief Secretary S C Mohapatra said after the cabinet meeting.

He said in order to facilitate the participation of manufacturers of vaccines to be stored in supercool temperature, the storage condition has been revised up to minus 20 degree Celsius, subject to the condition that the vaccines will remain stable and maintain its potency at 2 degree Celsius to 8 degree Celsius for at least 12 hours. The previous storage condition was 2 degree Celsius to 8 degree Celsius, the chief secretary said.

The chief secretary said that the state had a pre-bid meeting with the manufacturers on May 19. Based on the queries of bidders and to make the participation of bidders more flexible, amendments were incorporated as suggested by the designated committee of the Odisha State Medical Corporation Limited (OSMCL), he said.

Keeping the overall view of vaccinating the targeted population within a period of four months and limited supply of vaccines in the world market, the bid document has been prepared in a manner which will send a positive signal to the sellers.

Mohapatra said the price bid evaluation of an item will be made by comparison of basic quoted prices of each bidder excluding GST. The lowest eligible bidder which is Lowest-1 (L1) bidder will be the bidder who has quoted the lowest basic price in Bills of Quantity (BOQ), out of the rest bidders for that item.

As each vaccine is proprietary in nature and is not comparable to any other vaccine, the price evaluation mechanism will be made by comparison of basic quoted prices of each bidder excluding GST. All bidders will be treated independently.

In terms of award of contract, it was previously stipulated that 50 per cent of the total tender quantity shall be allocated to the L1 bidder and the balance 50 per cent to be split among L2, L3, L4 and so on at negotiated rates. However, as per the revised terms and conditions, a potential bidder will be allowed to apply for any quantity.

It was provided that performance security of 3 per cent of Letter Of Intent (LOI) value excluding taxes shall be paid by the successful bidder. The payment of performance security has been completely waived off to enable larger participation.

He said the OSMCL will issue separate purchase orders for each of the 4 phases for supply. In the amendment, the clause successive purchase orders will be issued after execution of the previous one is added.