Need for Centralized Infrastructure Procurement policy

The country's uniformity seems to be diverse not only under civil laws but also various policies.

Except the very fact that the state of J&K has its special status under the Article 371 of our constitution, the rest of the policies are supposed to be followed uniformly across the Republic of India.

The Government of India, where it had got the centralized regulation for different sectors like Highway, Telecom, Real Estate, Ports etc., and their governing authorities why not a centralized policy for procurement rather than mere guidelines and model documents in place.

There are various guidelines from the era of Planning Commission to now NITI Ayog and model agreements to help the way of procurement so as to execute them in a transparent manner, nevertheless these only guidelines and are not mandatorily followed, as there is no law / policy in place for the same.

The procurement policies from PPP to EPC vary from one state to another and from one department to another of a same state.

And one of such is the Swiss Challenge route, with many controversies to its credit.

Some of the controversies and petitions filed in various courts across India are -

 1) Aditya Housing and Infrastructure Development Corporation Pvt. Ltd & Ors Vs State of Andhra Pradesh (High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad) in 2016

2) Ravi Development Vs Shree Krishna Prathisthan & Ors (Supreme Court of India) in 2009

3) Dr. Raju Mathew Vs State of Kerala (High Court of Kerala) in 2015

4) Shree Ostwal Builders Ltd Vs State of Maharastra & Ors (Bombay High Court) in 2008

5) PIL filed by Ex-Chief Secretary (Mr. IYR Krishna Rao) of Andhra Pradesh on Swiss Challenge Process adapted by GoAP for Amaravathi development (High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad) in 2018.

And many others.

Reason for all the above being lack of fairness & transparency.

The Government of India, MoF in a reply to the recent RTI filed by me on its stand on procurement through Swiss Challenge route for execution of projects has clearly stating that the Central Government discourages the practice of accepting unsolicited proposals as it compromises the general principles of transparency, economy and fairness in the award of contracts for infrastructure projects by public authorities (The same is attached below). This means that the Government of India in principle is against the same and shall not extend its support to any of such projects executed by way of Swiss Challenge / Unsolicited proposal route. This shall be deemed further that it shall not extend its support in the way of convergence or VGF to the states for awarding of works enrooting Swiss challenge. If that is the case the states are wholly responsible for their projects and procurement policies.

If this is the case and government believes that the process of procurement lacks transparency, the same shall be notified to all the states in the Republic and form a centralized policy for the same, where the Union and State governments work at par.

But surprisingly, that's not happening. Many of the states like Maharashtra, Karnataka, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh etc., have come up with the set of new policies independently for the execution of Infrastructure projects under Swiss Challenge route and the states like Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh amending their existing policies to promote the process in the last two - three years.

The division in opinions of Centre and States further may create more complexities to the existing and may create problems in the execution of the projects, as against having a smooth, friendly and transparent process & policies for the Infrastructure projects involving in huge investments and high gestation periods so as to promote and implement the PPP model effectively.