In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,-
(i) “bid” means a formal offer made in pursuance of an invitation by a procuring entity and includes any tender, proposal or quotation;
(ii) “bidder” means any person participating in a procurement process with a procuring entity;
(iii) “bidder registration documents” means the documents issued by a procuring entity, including any amendments thereto, that set out the terms and conditions of registration proceedings and includes the invitation to register;
(iv) “bidding documents” means documents issued by the procuring entity, including any amendments thereto, that set out the terms and conditions of the given procurement and includes the invitation to bid;
(v) “bid security” means a security provided to the procuring entity by a bidder for securing the fulfilment of any obligation in terms of the provisions of the bidding documents;
(vi) “electronic reverse auction” means an online realtime purchasing technique utilised by the procuring entity to select the successful submission, which involves presentation by bidders of successively lowered bids during a scheduled period of time and the automatic evaluation of bids;
(vii) “goods” includes all articles, material, commodities, electricity, livestock, furniture, fixtures, raw material, spares, instruments, software, machinery, equipment, industrial plant, vehicles, aircraft, ships, railway rolling stock and any other category of goods, whether in solid, liquid or gaseous form, purchased or otherwise acquired for the use of a procuring entity as well as services or works incidental to the supply of the goods if the value of services or works or both does not exceed that of the goods themselves;
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(viii) “invitation to bid” means a document published by the procuring entity inviting bids relating to the subject matter of procurement and any amendment thereto and includes notice inviting tender and request for proposal;
(ix) “notification” means a notification published in the Official Gazette;
(x) “prescribed” means prescribed by rules made under this Act;
(xi) “pre-qualification” means the procedure set out to identify, prior to inviting bids, the bidders that are qualified;
(xii) “pre-qualification documents” means the documents issued by a procuring entity, including any amendments thereto, that set out the terms and conditions of the pre-qualification proceedings and includes the invitation to prequalify;
(xiii) “procurement” or “public procurement” means the acquisition by purchase, lease, licence or otherwise of works, goods or services, including award of Public Private Partnership projects, by a procuring entity whether directly or through an agency with which a contract for procurement services is entered into, but does not include any acquisition without consideration, and “procure” or “procured” shall be construed accordingly;
(xiv) “procurement contract” means a contract entered into between the procuring entity and a successful bidder concerning the subject matter of procurement;
(xv) “procurement process” means the process of procurement extending from the issue of invitation to pre-qualify or to register or to bid till the award of the procurement contract or cancellation of the procurement process, as the case may be;
(xvi) “procuring entity” means an entity referred to in subsection (2) of section 3;
(xvii) “Public Private Partnership” means an arrangement between the State Government, statutory entity or any other government owned entity on one side and a private sector entity on the other, for the provision of public assets or public services or both, through investments being made or management being undertaken, or both investments being made and management being undertaken, by the private sector entity, for a specified period of time, where there is well defined allocation of risk between the private sector and the State Government, statutory entity or any other government owned entity, as the case may be, and the private entity receives performance linked payments that conform (or are benchmarked) to specified and pre-determined performance standards, measurable by the State Government, statutory entity or any other government owned entity, as the case may be, or its representative;
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(xviii) “rate contract” means an agreement between a procuring entity and one or more bidders which specifies the terms and conditions including the price, for the supply of a subject matter of procurement required on a recurring basis;
(xix) “registered bidder” means any bidder who is on a list of registered bidders of the procuring entity maintained under section 19;
(xx) “services” means any subject matter of procurement other than goods or works and includes physical, maintenance, professional, intellectual, consultancy and advisory services or any service classified or declared as such by a procuring entity and does not include appointment of any person made by any procuring entity;
(xxi) “subject matter of procurement” means any item of procurement whether in the form of goods, services or works;
(xxii) “works” mean all works associated with the construction, reconstruction, site preparation, demolition, repair, maintenance, or renovation or railways, roads, highways or a building, an infrastructure, or structure or an installation or any construction work relating to excavation, drilling, installation of equipment and materials, as well as services incidental to the works if the value of those services does not exceed that of the works themselves.