New Delhi July 11: The finance ministry has announced guidelines with time-bound prequalification and procurement schedules for all World Bank-aided projects in the country in an attempt to spruce up a low-aid disbursement ratio.

As a first step, the ministry has been able to convince the World Bank to issue a no-objection certificate (NOC) to bid documents as well as concurrence to bid evaluation and award recommendation within a time schedule of 10 to 20 days.

This procedure will be followed by the Bank with respect to procurement of goods.

For prequalification and procurement of civil works, the deadline set for the Bank to provide the NOC to bid documents as well as concurrence to the evaluation and recommendation of awards has been fixed at 14 to 20 days and no more.

The NOC for procurement of supply and erection equipment from banks will have to come within 20 days of the receipt of bid documents by the Bank.

Ministry officials say that the new time schedule will go a long way in cutting down cost and time overruns.

The ministry in consultation with the World Bank has also made several other time-bound stipulations with regard to procurement of goods, prequalification and procurement of works and procurement of supply and erection equipment for the World Bank-aided projects For procurement of goods, the following time table has been laid down :

* The pre-bid conference (wherever applicable) should be conducted within 30 days prior to the opening of bids.

* Completion of evaluation of bids including approval from the competent authority and its forwarding to the World Bank has been kept as follows:

45-60 days for all bids with a validity period of only 90 days, 90 days for bid validity of 120 days and 120 days for bid validity of 180 days.

Similarly, for prequalification and procurement of civil works, the following conditions have been specified:

* Evaluation of bids, for prequalification of works as well as evaluation of bids for procurement of works, is to be completed within a period of 30 days and 45 days respectively from the date of bid opening.

* Thirty days have been recommended for obtaining the approval of the evaluated bids by the competent authority and recommendation for award of works, after the receipt of evaluation bids.

* The issue of letter of award will be done within 15 days from the date of receipt of concurrence from the World Bank.

The stipulations for procurement of supply and erection equipment are the following:

* Pre-bid conference, if applicable, should be completed within 30 days prior to the date of opening of bids.

* Opening of bids should be within 60-90 days after invitation of bids.

* Completion of evaluation of bids including approval of the competent authority should be made within 120 days of bid opening. Further breaking down the time tables for issues like time required to discuss with the recommended bidder the exact nature of supplies and the schedule to be followed for clarification meetings and award of letters of intent.

For example, if a clarification meeting is not held, all written clarifications received 30 days before the closing date of application should be replied within seven days of receipt of reference. Also, copy of the clarifications is too be sent to all the persons, who have purchased the bid documents.

Similarly, the minutes of the pre-bid meeting should be done within 10 days and issue of amendments to bid documents should be over 21 days before the last date of submission of bids.

The ministry officials point out that the some of the salient features of these stipulations will subsequently be incorporated in all government contracts in an attempt to cut down on cost and time overrun.