Monday, March 28, 2011

Indian [petro.com news 28th march 2011

March 28: While the jury is still out as to why the contract for the Authentix marker system was terminated, the CBI, in its recent findings, has observed lapses in the tendering process for the marker system. It may be recalled that the marker system developed by the British manufacturer, Authentix, and employed by the Indian oil marketing companies (OMCs) in late 2006, had proved to be of doubtful success. It was claimed that Authentix failed to live up to its claims and its marker had little success. An audit carried out of various samples of auto fuel from Retail Outlets (ROs) in 2007 revealed various marker test failures. Furthermore, an enquiry conducted by IOC`s vigilance department had detected that a brown chemical powder was being used to negate the efficiency of the marker system. In this backdrop, a CBI investigation was launched on the manner in which the marker was obtained without going through a proper tender process. In a recent advisory to the petroleum ministry, the CBI has made the following suggestion on how tendering should be done for acquiring marker systems in the future:
8In all procurement matters, proper global tender should be issued and not a global Expression of Interest (EOI)
8In case of issue of global EOI, it should only be used for academic purpose and should not be coupled with procurement process
8It is to be ensured that the bidding process invites healthy competition beneficial to the oil marketing companies (OMCs)
8The R&D department of the OMCs should be more professional in their approach and give clear recommendations with reason for their choices
8The officials visiting other countries to study the performance of marker should submit proper tour reports with supporting documents to the higher authorities

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