Numerous businesses apply for government tenders every year and win tender bids. While all businesses are invited to apply for tenders there are some general and specific eligibility criteria that businesses must meet. Studying the eligibility criteria for government tenders is of utmost importance before applying for any tenders published by the government.
What is government tender eligibility?
Tender eligibility criteria define the qualifications of a business that are required to participate in the tender project. All the criteria must be met before applying for a tender. If businesses fail to meet any of the criteria, their applications will be rejected by the government department that published the tender.
In general, the bidder’s eligibility is mentioned in the tender notice. When you download the tender document pdf from the official platform, it usually contains all details regarding the bidder’s eligibility, special requirements, and any additional qualifications required to bid for the particular tender.
Who can apply for tenders?
All businesses can apply for tenders but there are certain conditions to be fulfilled before applying for tenders.
The eligibility for government tenders in India depends on the tender projects published. It will also depend on the department issuing the tender requirement. Your eligibility for government tenders will be determined based on financial and technical details along with specific requirements depending on the contract.
1.Technical requirements for tender eligibility
Once the nodal officer who evaluates your response for tender receives your tenner application, he/she will peruse certain technical criteria of your company. These are the main technical tender eligibility criteria that will be scrutinized by the officer:
- Company credentials
- Production capacity
- Annual turnover
- Past performance
- Machinery and equipment details
- Workforce employed
- Quality control
- After-sale service
There are several other parameters that the tender evaluator will judge your tender application on.
For instance, the eligibility criteria for railway tenders have unique technical requirements. One of them include a condition that in the past seven years the applicant must have completed one or more similar work (similar to the tender applied for) each costing not less than the amount equal to 60% or 40% or 30% of the advertised value of the tender.
2.Financial requirements for tender eligibility
Financial criteria under government tender eligibility involve furnishing or quoting the estimated cost/price of the tender project that a business has applied for. The applicant needs to write the total money that will be required to finish the project while he is submitting the tender response. The tender response with the least estimated cost is likely to be selected over the other applications.
There are also other financial criteria used to determine the winning bidder.
For example, under the railway tender eligibility criteria, the tender applicants are supposed to furnish proof of receiving contractual payments in the previous three financial years and the current financial year up to the date of inviting of tender. This should amount to 150% of the advertised value of the tender.
Things to keep in mind before applying for tenders
To apply for a government tender, a person needs to register either on the CPPP portal or the GeM portal, the government’s official e-Tendering portals.
For you to become a registered supplier to the government there are certain guidelines issued by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) that need to be fulfilled.
Here are the CVC guidelines for tender eligibility you have to follow for successful registration on CPPP or GeM portal.
- Any firm, situated in India or abroad, which is in the business of providing goods/works/services of specified categories of interest, will be eligible for registration on CPPP and GeM.
- When the registration is granted based on partly outsourced agreements, the registered unit shall maintain such agreement throughout the validity of the registration.
- Suppliers should possess valid Class III Digital Signature Certificate (DSCs) with the company name at the time of registration/renewal to participate in government tenders published on the e-Tendering portals.
- The application form for registering on the e-Tendering portal must be duly filled and should be submitted online along with the tender processing fee and the required documents
- The registration would initially be treated as provisional and will become confirmed only after the firm has satisfactorily completed one tender project.
- The tender publisher has the right to reassess firms already registered to ascertain details of current financial soundness/credit worthiness, facilities available, etc., to check the tenderer’s eligibility before awarding a work contract.
The registration application form will be assessed thoroughly for evaluating the capacity and capability of the firms including credentials, manufacturing capability, quality control system, past performance, after-sales service facilities, financial background, etc., of the applicant. The applicant’s bankers will be contacted to determine the financial standing of the firm. Companies that the applicant has named as clients in the registration form will be contacted to ascertain credibility of the business.
Apart from these, there are several other things to keep in mind when applying for government contracts, especially if you are an emerging business or start-up. For instance, evaluate if you have the team, infrastructure, finances, and basic capability to execute the tender? Inability to meet deadlines will not only put you in bad books, but may also affect your business’s credibility in future projects.
How to check tender eligibility?
To know whether you are eligible for a selected tender, you need to download the tender documents attached with the tender announcement. These documents will have a detailed description of the tender along with instruction to bidders and eligibility criteria.
A mandatory thing to do to apply for government tenders on CPPP is registering on the platform and uploading your DSC. The bidder will be a valid bidder only after the registration of the DSC. One you register your DSC to your CPPP account, it cannot be mapped to another CPPP account, DSC once uploaded can only be deleted.
Pradeep a SEO professional and passionate content writer who loves writing on various topics with 5 years of experience. At Tata nexarc, it has been 4 years since he is helping MSMEs to know the business challenges deeper and strategies to solve those. While not writing, he loves reading about digital marketing to hone his skills for business growth.