The Government suppliers and contractors

Tanuj Goswami

(tanujuri03@gmail.com)

The Government suppliers and contractors in the state of Assam have been playing yeoman's service in the growth and development of different sectors of our economy and they are considered as Sine qua non whose services to the state is acknowledged with due recognition. Now the contours of national economic policies, rules and regulations, has changed drastically and unbelievably- our local contractors and suppliers should keep themselves abreast with the realities of time and face the situation with the requisite knowledge, adaptability and a competitive bent of mind.

Assam, unfortunately, has ever been in news for unprecedented corrupt practices taking place in most Government departments, academic institutions, PSUs, statutory bodies etc. In many of these cases- if any sort of illegalities/ wrongdoings got detected, the perpetrators are taken to task, suspended, blacklisted and even put behind bars as per provision of law.

But unchecked corruption and the 'don't give a damn' attitude of many government officials have been the order of the day sometimes due to ignorance of the law, both of the officials as well as the Government suppliers/contractors etc. But ignorance of the law is no excuse. The time has hastily changed and our growing market economy is getting supplemented with necessary laws, rules and regulations in line with the best economies of the world.

With the enforcement of the Competition Act-2002, the Competition Commission of India as per the mandated provision of section 49(3) of the Act, has initiated series of advocacy programs for different stakeholders-like the Government procurement officials, Corporate Managers, Academic Institutions, Chambers of Commerce& Industries, bar association, judges, consumers forum, producers, traders, service providers etc. This is the only Act making provision for advocacy measures for different stakeholders before plunging into enforcement as per law.

The Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization being firmly on track since 1991, our economy transformed to a new height, and an inspiring era dawned across all sectors of our economy. Along with the manifold increase in foreign direct investment, scores of foreign companies forayed into India and these flood gates impelled the Government to introduce Competition Act-2002 for better market regulation and control.

The Competition Act 2002, lays greater emphasis on advocacy rather than its strict enforcement and imposition of penalty which is very harsh. So, the advocacy division of the Competition Commission of India as per the aforementioned provision of the Act-rolled out number of the awareness campaign, training schedule, interactive meetings, workshops, seminars, roadshows, publication of advocacy literature, magazines etc. And such positive steps have already paid off building an environment of the competitive business environment in India.

Having crossed some initial legal hurdles, the new Act got fully enforced from the year 2009 replacing the earlier Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act-1969. The MRTP Act lost its relevance due to some fundamental flaws as well as being a square peg in the round hole of the LPG policy of the Government.

Public procurement being the major activity of the Central and State governments as well as of numerous statutory bodies/ agencies of the country are prone to vulnerabilities of anti-competitive practices like a cartel, bid-rigging, market allocation, abuse of dominance etc. So, all the stakeholders participating in the procurement process need to earn substantive knowledge of the Act and a good sense of fair play.

The government/statutory bodies/staff training institutes of the state have a moral responsibility to arrange for imparting - requisite functional knowledge to the contractors and suppliers. The bid process management with new tools on hand has now become so transparent, highly competitive and fine-tuned that hardly is there any scope for anti-competitive practices.

The prime objective of the Competition Act is to create an environment of competitive neutrality wherein no distinction between the public and private, foreign and domestic, big and small is allowed and to foster a level playing field where all participants have the freedom to participate and play fairly.

The evolving business environment calls for an enlightened section of traders, producers, suppliers, distributors, service providers who are to ascertain optimum use of their scarce resources, which in turn leads to production efficiency in terms of quality goods and services.

Productive efficiency brings up innovation and more the innovation, more the ranges of quality products of reasonable prices and choices. Ultimately the end-user gets benefitted in a big way and thus a healthy and strong market system grows up to the satisfaction of all the concerned stakeholders. The business environment of the country gets rejuvenated with free and fair participation of prospective enterprises and surely an add on to the ease of doing business.

The government procurement officials need to have an up to date and very well-maintained database containing all information about the characteristic of the market, products, producers, sellers, distributors, service providers and information about past tenders, the winner's track records and a host of information to be collected from other public undertakings regarding the conduct of competitors.

The tender design needs maximum precaution so that it is in sync with the spirit of the Act rather than throwing unnecessary conditionality either in financial terms, long experience, uncalled for restriction or scheming to favour an old firm, which purportedly causes barriers in the entry of new and small-time eligible enterprises. The startups, Make in India sectors need to be encouraged and allowed to participate which is a sure-fire way to create a new business attitude amongst the firms.

In Assam under the State Resource Person Scheme of the Competition Commission of India, the SRPs have held more than 30 no of online advocacy programmes with many government departments and officials of Central and State PSUs, their contractors and it is still on. The members of the Indian Chambers of Commerce, Assam Chambers of Commerce, Power Electrical Contractor Assam, Laghu Udyog Bharti Guwahati et al are some of the beneficiaries. Meanwhile, a series of articles on Competition Act-2002 and its different aspects got published in the prominent English and Assamese dailies from Guwahati as a part of the awareness drive.