The Water Resources department has issued orders freezing the Quality and Cost-Based Selection (QCBS) method adopted by the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) for picking firms for carrying out projects.
The department, in a February 16 order, noted that the QCBS is ‘‘complicated, incomplete and attracted complaints from the public”. The KWA should immediately revert to the system prescribed by existing government orders and manuals for transparently floating tenders, it said.
The QCBS was adopted by KWA last year as a method that took into account not just the cost of services for selecting bidders but also the quality through a rigorous ranking system for the bidders. Under it, the contract need not go to the lowest price bid. The system was made mandatory for all tenders with a tender probable amount of contract (TPAC) of above ₹5 crore.
The Water Resources department pointed out that modifications in the tendering process was a matter of government policy. Prima facie, there existed the possibility that QCBS criteria could be determined in a 'preconceived' manner and the system required scrutiny at the government level to be foolproof, the order noted.
Nonetheless, the department permitted the KWA to finalise bids invited up to February 15, 2022, as per the QCBS norms since big projects including those under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) rural household water connection scheme need to be completed in a time-bound manner.
A senior KWA official pointed out that QCBS was adopted to ensure efficiency and avoid delays in the implementation of projects, especially as the KWA had to deal with a large number of tenders under JJM and tight deadlines. At a meeting of companies convened by the KWA in May last year to discuss QCBS, KWA officials had reasoned that such a system could prove effective for completing high value, high quality works on time.
The Water Resources department also directed the KWA to submit a detailed proposal to examine and assess whether QCBS was effective or not.
