18 In addition to the information specified in clause (a) to (g) of sub-section (3) of section 17 of the Act, State Public Procurement Portal shall provide access to such other information as may be specified by the State Government from time to time as follows:-
(1) Every procuring entity shall e- publish the specified information by uploading it in State Public Procurement Portal. All decisions relating to a particular procurement including extension of time, award of contract, closing of procurement process, commencement of works or services or delivery of goods procured shall be published in the Portal by the concerned procurement entity.
(2) Subject to any other law for the time being in force, the Head of the concerned Administrative Department, in consultation with the Financial Adviser, shall, after recording the reasons thereof, exempt the procuring entity from the prescribed mandatory e-publishing of information in cases where confidentiality is required to be maintained in terms of section 49 of the Act. In the case of procurement entities referred to in clauses (b) to (f) of sub-section (2) of section 3 of the Act, the Head of the concerned Office/Establishment, in consultation with the Head of the Finance section of that Office/Establishmentshall so exempt the procuring entities under them:
Provided that statistical information, like the number of cases in which such exemptions were granted, the value of the related procurement etc., as may be required, shall be intimated to the State Procurement Facilitation Cell by the concerned Department or Office/Establishmenton a quarterly basis.
(3) The information published in the State Public Procurement Portal shall be treated as records and shall be classified, maintained and preserved in accordance with the Assam Public RecordsAct, 2002 and rules framed thereunder for the time-period specified therein.
(4) The Finance Department shall allocate pages, codes, user identities, passwords, etc.
and other user and security tools, etc., as necessary to every procurement entity and may prescribe guidelines and standard operating procedures for use of the State Public Procurement Portal.
(5) All publications uploaded in the Portal shall be either digitally signed or clear and legible scanned copies of documents duly signed by the procuring entity or the competent authority.
(6) The State Public Procurement Portal shall contain the necessary links to all the websites relating to public procurement by the State Government including the sites for e-procurement, electronic reverse auction and district websites.
(7) The provisions of this rule shall apply to all bid enquiries, requests for expressions of interest, requests for proposals, notice inviting bids for pre-qualification or registration or any other notice inviting bids or proposals in any form, whether they 19 are openly advertised, issued to limited number of parties or to a single party.
(8) The provisions of these rules shall not apply to procurements made by way of Request for Quotations, Spot Purchase, Government e Market-place (GeM), Community Procurement, e-Commerce websites, and execution of works through Construction Committees.
(9) The State Government may fix rates and issue guidelines, from time to time, for charging reasonable processing fee or user charges from bidders for using the State Public Procurement Portal and e-procurement facility.