Now, you can deposit earnest money online during bidding for UT tenders

It is intended to remove scope for manipulation in the tendering process

Chandigarh The UT administration has finally implemented the online payment of earnest money for participation in its e-tenders. The online application was awaiting implementation for around a year since it was developed.

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It is intended to remove scope for manipulation in the tendering process.

The implementation follows the recent allegations made against the UT engineering department for allotment of tenders when most bidders couldn’t deposit earnest money to participate in the tendering process because of the lockdown.

An online payment gateway has been integrated within the e-tendering mechanism, which allows the bidders to deposit the earnest money through online banking transactions.

The system, developed by the National Informatics Center, Chandigarh, in June last year was to become operational by July-end.

Before its implementation, while the tenders were floated online, many other steps involved in the tendering process were manual rather than online. The details of the tenders were available online, but bidders had to deposit earnest money physically, though the tendering was done online.

The decision to introduce it came after some contractors complained that they couldn’t participate in bidding process of a hostel in government educational institution on account of their inability to deposit earnest money due to the lockdown. In the said tender only two local bidders could deposit the earnest money.

Also, depositing earnest money through physical banking transaction exposes the identity of the bidder, as well as the total number of bidders. It shows how many people have come to participate in the tendering process. This opens up the scope for manipulation of the entire e-tendering process,” said a senior UT official.

The new system allows for the protection of identity of the bidders. “There have been instances in the past when the disclosing of the bidder’s identity and their number had impacted the outcome of the process. Bidders have been even pressured in some cases,” said the official.