PUNJAB PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION

Tender for Conducting Online Examination

No.005/OS/PPSC Date: 5-2-14 Subject: Notice inviting Tender for conducting online examination for various recruitments in the office of Punjab Public Service Commission for a period of one year. (The Commission reserves the right to extend the period of contract to another one year subject to NO change in the rates as quoted by the Bidder.) 1.0 Tender for the Scope of Work as defined in Schedule-A are

called by the office of Punjab Public Service Commission. The Scope of work detailed in Schedule A, shall be required to be started in two weeks’ time from the date of finalization of bid.

1.1 Volume of Work: The detail of exams conducted annually by the Punjab Public Service Commission is enclosed in Schedule –B. 2.0 Eligibility requirements of Bidders: The bidders should satisfy the following conditions as pre-requisites

for submission of bids: 2.1 The bidding agencies who have independently conducted online examinations (as per Scope of work) for minimum two years for reputed Government organizations/ departments, preferably State Public Service Commissions are eligible to quote the rates. 2.2 The bidding Agency should have conducted online examination for at least one lakh candidates in a single session in the last one year. 2.3 The bidding agency should own the copyright of the source code being used for conducting the computer based online examinations. The agency should be able to make changes as and when required in any of the components of the software.

2.4 The agency should be certified for compliance with established Information Security Standards such as ISO 27001. 2.5 The bidding agency should have authorized and globally accepted software certification, CMMi Level 5. 2.6 The Bidder shall be profit making for the last three (3) years with a minimum annual turnover of Rupees Twenty five Crore every year. 2.7 The Bidder should preferably have prominent presence in Punjab/ Chandigarh. The Bidder who has no prominent presence in Punjab/ Chandigarh may apply for Tender provided that during the time of work, sufficient supportive staff shall be arranged by the Bidder at his own cost. The Bidder shall be required to give immediate response, if needed by the Commission. 2.8 The bidder must have the latest valid solvency certificate worth atleast Twenty five Crore from the Scheduled / Nationalized bank/Foreign/Private Bank having office or branch in Chandigarh/ Patiala. 2.9 The Bidder must have the latest VAT clearance Certificate or a VAT Payment Challan from concerned Government Department. 3.0 General Information regarding the bids: 3.1 The bids should be sent in sealed cover addressed to Secretary, Punjab Public Service Commission, Patiala, Baradari Gardens. 3.2 Tender Notice No. and date of opening of bids should invariably be written on the top of envelope. 3.3 Tenders shall be forwarded on the letter Head of the firm, which should contain PAN /TIN No. / STD Number. / Phone Number/Fax Number. /URL, email, and other details of the firm. The proposals shall be submitted in two parts, viz., 3.3.1 Envelope 1: - Technical Bid super-scribed as “Envelope 1 –

Technical Bid for Tender Notice No: _________”, From : Name and Contact details. It should contain all technical details and documents.

3.3.2 Envelope- 2: Financial Bid containing commercial proposal super-scribed as “Envelope 2- Financial Bid” for Tender Notice No: _______”, From: Bidder’s Name and Contact details.

Note: If any bidder encloses the financial bid within technical bid, the same shall be rejected summarily. 3.4 All the bids will have to be submitted in a bound form with all

pages numbered, signed and sealed. The Proposal should also have an index giving page wise information of above documents. Incomplete proposal will be summarily rejected.

3.5No bids will be considered unless and until each page of the bid document is duly signed by the authorized signatory. 3.6 The bidder MUST submit an EMD of Rs 1,00,000/- in the form of

Bank draft drawn in favour of Secretary, Punjab Public Service Commission, Patiala.

3.7 The bids and all correspondence/documents relating to the bids shall be written in English language.

3.8 At any time before the submission of bids, Punjab Public Service Commission may amend the tender by issuing an addendum in writing or by standard electronic means. The addendum will be binding on all bidders. If the amendment is substantial, bidders shall be given reasonable time to make amendment or to submit revised bid and deadline for submission of bids will be extended by the Commission accordingly.

4.0 Technical Bid: 4.1 The Technical Bid should be submitted in a bound form with an index (duly numbered and each page signed by the Competent Authority) (Three copies) Technical bid should contain the following: 4.1.1 A technical proposal that details the capabilities of the Question Paper Authoring Software, the Examination Software (Client and Server) and the software that handles post examination operations (verification of the uploaded data). Please provide the details in a separate table. (Refer to Scope of Work-Schedule A)

4.1.2 An operational proposal that gives the following details: 4.1.2.1 The number of nodes per city in Punjab / Chandīgarh or any other place where the vendor has earlier conducted online exams. Note that for the qualified nodes the bidder MUST have in place an agreement with the institute/college providing the infrastructure. 4.1.2.2 The projected capability in terms of the number of audited seats in various cities of Punjab that the vendor will be able to provide (Refer Schedule-B). 4.1.2.3 The availability of adequate number of technical personnel for conducting the examination in the required number of test centers. 4.1.2.4 The process followed by the vendor for qualifying a test center. 4.1.2.5 The procedures followed for the pre-exam, exam and post-exam operations including the capability of the vendor to set up a secure Master Control facility where the post-exam data will be uploaded. 4.1.3. A statement that gives the following details of the exams conducted by the vendor within the last 1year: (a) Total number of candidates appeared for the examination, (b) Total number of candidates across all the cities in a single session, (c) Number of sessions on a day of examination and (d) Number of days of examination. 4.2 Documents to be enclosed along with Tender bid: 4.2.1Tender Bid form duly filled in. (Annexure -1) 4.2.2 Company Profile along with supporting documents. 4.2.3 Reference, information and certificates from the respective clients certifying technical, delivery and execution capability of the bidder should be signed and the contact numbers of all such clients should be mentioned. 4.2.4 Details of Manpower.

4.2.5 Detail of centres in Punjab/ Chandigarh or any other place where the online examinations have earlier been conducted. 4.2.6 Earnest Money Deposit of Rs. 1,00,000/- in the form of Bank draft drawn in favour of Secretary, Punjab Public Service Commission, Patiala. 4.2.7 Latest VAT Clearance Certificate or VAT payment Challan from concerned Government Department. 4.2.8 Original Tender Document duly signed. 4.2.9 Audited balance sheet of the last two years along with certificate of incorporation and also certificate of commencement of business in the case of Public Limited Company. 4.2.10 Copy of the PAN Card 4.2.11 Certificate from C.A. stating that turnover is more than Twenty five Crore from related field as on 01st April, 2013. 4.2.12 Copy of latest valid solvency Certificate worth not less than Twenty five Crore from Scheduled/ Nationalised / reputed Foreign/Private Bank having office or branch in Patiala/ Chandigarh. 4.2.13 Copies of the latest certificate stating that Bidder’s company or Director/Owner of the company have not been declared by any Court or Competent Authorities to be involved in any fraudulent activity (Economical & Criminal). 4.2.14 Detailed note explaining the scope of work understood by the Agency/ Company and which shall be executed by it. 4.2.15 Copy of Income Tax Return for the last three years up to assessment year 2012-2013 4.2.16 Detailed lists/procedures of quality control, which the Agency/ Company propose to conduct during the execution of work. 4.2.17 Authorization Certificate of the representative of the Company attending the bid opening process.

4.2.18 Copy of Certificate for compliance with established Information Security Standards such as ISO 27001 certificate. 4.2.19 Certificate that the Company has not been disqualified/ debarred/ blacklisted by any Government Department. 5.0 Financial Bid:

5.1 The bidder needs to fill Proforma for Financial bid (given in Annexure II) and submit in a sealed envelope.

5.2 The financial bid should quote the details of the charges per

registered candidate irrespective of the number of candidates. (Refer Schedule-B for information)

The charges per registered candidate should include the cost towards the activities detailed in the Scope of Work (Schedule-A)

Broadly, it would include the following: (a) Charges paid to their technical personnel by the agency during

vetting of test centers, (b) Charges paid by the agency to the college for hiring the

infrastructure at the college, (c) Providing partitions at the Test Centers, (d) Development of question paper authoring software as per

specification for the Online Examination, (e) Development of Test Software for Online Examination, (f) Deployment of the Company Personnel, i.e. the Test

Administrators and Company Representatives at the Test Centers and the technical personnel at the Master Control Rooms,

(g) Administration of Test and (h) Other incidental expenses. A clear break-up as indicated in (a) to (h) should be provided. For

the sake of uniformity across all the test centers, uniform rates for infrastructure be maintained for all the test centers and adhere to the same without any deviation.

Note: PPSC would pay the honorarium for the college personnel (Coordinator, Supervisor, Invigilators etc.) involved in the conduct of the examination. 5.3 The rates quoted in financial bid shall not be overwritten. The rates must be quoted in words and figures both. In case of any difference the rates quoted in words will be final.

5.4 The quoted rates in the financial bid should be inclusive of VAT and all other Taxes as applicable to Punjab Government Departments and the same should be clearly mentioned in the Quotations. 5.5 Price quotation accompanied by vague and conditional expressions Such as “Subject to immediate acceptance", “Subject to confirmation” etc. shall be treated as being at variance & shall be liable for rejection. The price quotation once quoted shall not be allowed to change under any circumstances. 6.0 Tender Finalization Committee: A Sub Committee constituted by the Punjab Public Service Commission shall evaluate the Tenders. The decision of the Sub-Committee in the evaluation of the Technical and Commercial bids shall be final. 7.0 Opening of Technical Bids: 7.1. The Tendering Authority shall open the bids as per the schedule after the closing date, on the day and time as specified. 7.2.The technical bids envelope shall be opened and scrutinized at a preliminary level. No Bid shall be rejected at the opening, except for late bids, which shall be returned unopened to the bidders. 7.3.The financial bid covers shall be listed and put in an envelope and shall be sealed. The sealed envelope of financial bids shall be in custody of a designated officer of the Commission and the financial bids shall not be opened till the evaluation of technical bids is over. 7.4. The bids shall be opened in the presence of bidder’s representatives, who choose to attend and they shall sign a register evidencing their attendance. Only one representative per applicant shall be permitted to be present at the time of opening the tender. 7.5 During evaluation of bids, the Tendering Authority may, at its discretion, ask the Bidder for a clarification of its bid. The request for a clarification and the response shall be in writing. 7.6 The documentation furnished by the Bidder shall be examined prima facie to see if the technical skill base and financial capacity and

other Vendor attributes claimed therein are consistent with the needs of this project. 7.7 The Tendering Authority may ask the bidders to demonstrate the technical capabilities in the form of presentation, etc., at a place and time determined by the Commission. (The bidder shall submit the duly signed hard copy as well as soft copy of the presentation made). Additional information eg, visiting the Computer laboratories, Bidders site and/or arrange discussions with their professional, technical faculties to verify claims made in technical bid documentation may also be sought if the Sub Committee/ Commission so desires. 8.0 Opening of Financial Bids: 8.1 Financial Bids of only technically qualified Bidders will be opened. 8.2 The date for opening of the Financial bid shall be announced after the scrutiny of the technical bid has been completed as above. 8.3 The Tendering Authority may under its discretion discuss with the Bidder(s) to clarify contents of financial offer. 8.4 The Tendering Authority reserves the right to open Financial Bid even if one Bidder qualifies the Technical Bid or only one Bid is received in response to the Tender Notice. 9.0 Queries regarding the tender document: Any query regarding the tender document should be sent by email at secyppsc@gmail.com at the latest by 1600 hours 14th February, 2014. The information regarding the queries shall be given in the Pre-bid meeting. (The Commission is not bound to answer queries asked after the due date and time mentioned above.) 9.1 Pre-bid Meeting: The Pre-bid meeting shall be held on 21st February, 2014 at 11.30 AM in the office of Punjab Public Service Commission, Baradari Garden, Patiala. 10.0 Last Date for receipt of bids: The last date for receipt of bids is 7th March, 2014 up to 12:00 PM and the bids will be opened on 7th March, 2014 at 03:00 PM in the office of Punjab Public Service Commission by a committee formed for this

purpose. The bids received after due date & time shall be rejected straightway. 11.0 All disputes arising out of this process shall be subject to the

jurisdiction of Punjab and Haryana High court, Chandigarh. 12.0 The Commission reserves the right to award the work or cancel

the award without assigning any reason whatsoever. In case of differences, if any, the decision of the Commission shall be final.

13.0 For any clarification the office of Secretary, PPSC may be contacted during working hours.

14.0 Other Terms and Conditions:

14.1 Tender to be submitted should strictly conform to the

specifications as defined under the Scope of work failing which it will

be liable to be rejected.

14.2 Performance Security:

14.2.1 Within Seven (7) days of the issuance of work order by the

Tendering Authority, the successful Vendor shall furnish the

Performance Security in accordance with the Conditions of Contract in

the form acceptable to the Tendering Authority.

14.2.2 The successful Bidder shall furnish performance guarantee of Rs. 1, 00,000/- (Rs.One Lakh Only) within Ten days of the receipt of notification of award / Letter of intent from the Tendering Authority. 14.2.3 The Performance Security shall be denominated in Indian

Rupees and shall be in the form of a Bank guarantee issued by a

nationalized/scheduled bank located in India acceptable to the

Tendering Authority in the form provided in the bidding documents.

14.2.4 This bank guarantee should be valid for a period of one year from the date of issue of work order. On extension of the contract, the successful Vendor shall have to extend the validity of this bank guarantee for the period for which extension has been awarded. 14.2.5 The Performance Security shall be discharged by the Tendering Authority and returned to the Vendor not later than thirty (30) days after the expiry of the contract period.

14.2. 6 In case of any delay in execution of the task assigned or non-performance by the Vendor, the Performance security shall be forfeited by the Tendering Authority. 14.3 Hardware and Software arrangements: All Hardware and Software required for purpose of Conduction of Online Examination shall be supplied by the Vendor. 14.4 The Vendor shall abide by the job safety measures prevalent in India and shall free the Tendering Authority from all demands or responsibilities arising from accidents or loss of life, the cause of which is the Vendor’s negligence. The Vendor shall pay all indemnities arising from such incidents and shall not hold the Tendering Authority responsible or obligated. 14.5 The Vendor is responsible for, and obliged to conduct all contracted activities as defined in the Scope of Work in accordance with the Contract. The Vendor is obliged to work closely with the staff of the Tendering Authority and abide by directives issued by them. 14.6 The Vendor shall not assign or part with or sublet the contract or any of the part of contract to any other party. 14.7 Payment: 14.7.1 No advance payment is admissible under any circumstances. 14.7.2 Payment will be made against bills presented only after the performance of the service to the satisfaction of the Commission. 15.0 Confidentiality 15.1. The successful Bidder will submit affidavit on appropriate Non-judicial Stamp Paper duly attested by Public Notary to keep information and data pertaining to the PPSC to be confidential. 15.2 The bidder shall treat as confidential all data and information about the Tendering Authority, obtained in the execution of his responsibilities, in strict confidence and shall not reveal such information to any other party without the prior written approval of the Tendering Authority.

15.3. The bidder shall act with appropriate propriety and discretion and in particular shall refrain from making any public statement concerning the Project or the Services without prior approval of the Commission. 15.4 The breach of confidentiality under this section/ breach of any terms and conditions of the contract agreement / delay in execution of the task assigned/ non-performance shall lead to imposition of financial penalty two times the cost of Project as well as lodging of criminal proceedings against the Agency/ Company.

Schedule-A

Scope of Work The following sections list the features in the Online Examination that

the bidders are expected to provide through their technology and

operations, and the capabilities of the bidder needed for delivery of the

Online Examination. The sections are broadly divided in three

categories:

(I) PRE-EXAMINATION WORK

A) Content Creation

1. The Bidder would provide the Question Paper Authoring software

and train the personnel authorized by the Commission on Question

Paper Authoring and Question Pack Generation.

2. The Bidder should be willing to modify the Question Paper

Authoring Software as per the requirements of the Commission. These

requirements of the Commission will be communicated to the bidder

as and when required, but well before the beginning of the actual

authoring process.

3. Question Paper authoring will be carried out by bonafide

representatives designated by the Commission within the premises of

Commission. The necessary infrastructure required for Question Paper

Authoring will be provided by the bidder.

The bidder has to provide the infrastructure requirement and set up a

model test facility that will be tested with dummy question papers.

4 The Question Paper Authoring software must allow for creating

multiple versions of a question paper by jumbling the questions and

the choices for a question.

5. Authoring software must allow for encryption and password

protection. The bidder should provide the certificate of confidentiality

with regards to contents of all the question papers.

B) Examination Cities - The tentative list of cities in Punjab in which

the Online Examination would be conducted should be given along

with. The final list of cities will be finalized by the Commission as per

requirement of each exam.

C) Test Centers – The bidder would arrange to identify Test Centers

that have been certified and audited by the bidder. A College may have

one or more Test Centers. Offices of the bidding agency must not be

considered for Test Centers. All the Test Centers identified by the

bidder must be approved by the Commission.

C.1The minimum requirements for the candidate system

Screen resolution 1024 X 768

Operating System

Windows XP Professional Service

Pack 3

Microsoft Windows Server 2003

Enterprise Edition

Service Pack 2, Windows Vista

Enterprise Edition

Browser Internet Explorer 6.0 or above as

supported by above Operating

systems

Browser Settings Internet Explorer (IE) Java Script

enabled

Pop-up blocker disabled

Paste operations via script

enabled

Proxy disabled

USB disabled

C.2 Minimum requirements for the Examination Center Server:

Processor CPU Speed: 1.5 GHz or more

RAM

4 GB or more

Screen Resolution 1024 X 768

Operating System Windows XP Professional Service

Pack 3 Microsoft Windows Server

2003 Enterprise Edition

Service Pack 2, Windows Vista

Enterprise Edition

Browser

Internet Explorer (IE) 6.0 or

above as supported by

above Operating systems

Browser Settings IE Java Script enabled

Pop-up blocker disabled

Paste operations via script

enabled

Proxy disabled

USB disabled

Other software

Net 2.0 Framework

Microsoft Office Excel 2003 or

above

D) Personnel requirements

D.1 Personnel of Bidder/ Bidding Agency: The Bidder/ Bidding

Agency would provide adequately trained Test Administrators (TAs) in

every Test Center. The TAs should be the staff of the Bidder/ Bidding

Agency, temporary staff of Bidder/ Bidding Agency are not acceptable.

There will be one TA for every 100 candidates and part thereof at a

Test Center (i.e for maximum 150 candidates). Accordingly, there will

be a minimum of two TAs in a Test Center with 150 or more candidates

in a session and so on. The TAs will administer the conduct of test and

provide the technical support for maintaining the servers used in the

conduct of examination at a Test Center.

The Bidder/ Bidding Agency will also ensure availability of at least one

adequately trained Network Maintenance Engineer at each Center.

The Bidder/ Bidding Agency would identify a senior staff member of

the Company as the Center Head (CH) at each College. The CH will be

responsible for supervising the Technical Personnel of the Bidder/

Bidding Agency at all the Test Centers in the College. The CH will be the

contact person of the Bidder/ Bidding Agency for the College

Personnel and the Personnel of the Commission to interact regarding

the conduct of Online Examination at the College.

D.2 College Personnel: The senior-most faculty member from the

College will be identified as the Coordinator .

A senior faculty member from the College will be identified as the

Supervisor for each Test Center. The Coordinator and Supervisor of a

Test Center will be responsible for the availability of facilities to assist

the bidder/ bidding agency in conduct of the Online exam.

Invigilators of the exam will be from the faculty members of the

College. There will be one invigilator for every 20 candidates and part

thereof at a Test Center. At a Test Center with less than 20 registered

candidates, there will be a minimum of 2 Invigilators. The bidder

should train the Invigilators for invigilating the Online Examination.

There will be two Technical Staff from the College at each Test Center

to assist the TAs from the bidder.

The honorarium for Coordinators, Supervisors, Invigilators and

Technical Staff of the College will be paid by the Commission. The

Coordinator will also be responsible for ensuring the availability of

infrastructure for the conduct of examination at all the Test Centers in

the College.

D.3 Personnel of the Commission: The Commission would provide

one/ two Institute Representative (IRs) at each Test Center. The

conduct of examination at a Test Center will be monitored and

overseen by the IRs.

The IRs shall carry the examination material to the respective centers,

ensure that all the arrangements as mentioned in the specifications are

made for smooth conduct of examinations, conduct a mock test with

the help of bidder’s personnel on the day before the examination and

verify the adequacy of the arrangements, load the question paper into

the server before the examination, as and when required take

decisions in consultation with the Coordinator regarding the timing of

the examination, ensure that the responses are properly uploaded and

copied onto the pen drives and bring the material safely back to the

Commission’s office.

E) Infrastructure requirements

E.1 The bidder would arrange for the servers necessary to conduct the

examination at each Test Center. One main server and one backup

server will be available for every 200 candidates and part there of at a

Test Center.

E.2 The bidder would arrange for the client systems necessary to

conduct the examination at each Test Center. One client system will be

available for every candidate registered at each Test Center. There will

be a reserve pool of client systems. The number of systems in the

reserve pool will be at least 10% of total number of registered

candidates in a session at a Test Center. However, there will be a

minimum of 10 client systems in the reserve pool at a Test Center with

less than 100 candidates in a session. The client system should have at

least 1GB of main memory. LCD monitors are preferred over CRT

monitors.

E.3 There must be adequate spacing (of at least 2 ft.) between two

adjacent seats. In addition the bidder must arrange for providing

partitions of appropriate size between the adjacent seats.

E.4 The bidder would also ensure the availability of a functional local

area network and a power backup generator at each Test centre. The

main server, backup server and client systems at each test center

would be provided with functional UPS. Uninterrupted power should

be made available for the period of each session and for 30 minutes

prior to and after each session on the day of examination.

F) Test Delivery – Test will be delivered over the intranet at a Test

Center. A maximum of 250 client systems will be connected to a main

server and a backup server. The proposal submitted by the vendor

should indicate the limits to which the server has been tested in terms

of number of client systems connected simultaneously without loss of

performance in the examination environment.

G) Process Manual - The detailed Standard Process Manual (SPM) will

be prepared by the bidder and submitted to the Commission for

approval atleast 10 days prior to the conduct of exam.

H) Mock Tests

H.1 The bidder must make arrangements so that static mock tests

(bilingual) can be conducted by the interested applicants using old

question papers loaded on the website of the Commission. The static

mock tests should be available to all the applicants minimum ten days

before the actual examination so that the applicants can have practice

sessions.

H.2 The bidder must conduct at least one/ two mock tests and make

arrangements to upload the results of one of the mock tests onto the

server so that the Organizing Institute can make observations of the

results from the Master Control Facility.

I)Distribution of Question Packs to the Test Centers – The Online

Examination Software developed and used by the bidder must support

the following two modes of loading the Question Packs (QPs): (i)

Locally at the server via a CD or a pen drive collected from IRs and (ii)

Over the network from Master Control Room.

In the former mode, the authoring software must ensure that

encrypted and password protected content is generated which can be

loaded onto a CD or a pen drive. In the latter mode, the bidder must

ensure confidentiality and protection of the QP content both at the

Master Control Room as well as during transfer over a network. The

loading of a QP into the Online Examination Software on the servers at

a Test Center must be password protected.

(II) CONDUCT OF ONLINE EXAMINATION

J) Features to be provided in Online Examination Test Software

All papers of the Commission will be Multiple choice Objective type.

The Online Examination Test Software should include the following

features:

1. Keyboard should be disabled

2. Login using a virtual keypad

3. Display of details of candidate (including a photograph) upon login

for verification by the candidate and invigilators.

4. Display of instructions to candidates upon login and before start of

examination. The candidate must be able to retrieve instructions at any

time during the examination as well. The software must obtain

concurrence of the candidate having read the instructions before start

of examination.

5. Start and closure of the examination at scheduled time (candidates

must not be able to start their examination even if they login before the

scheduled time).

6. Display of remaining time available

7. Display of candidate details on the screen (including a photograph if

available) during the examination.

8. Viewing the complete question paper or a section in the case of

sectional papers.

9. Display of a selected question with choices of answers for multiple

choice type questions.

10. Display of a selected question and a virtual numeric keypad for

numerical answer type questions.

11. Marking/unmarking a question (answered or unanswered) for

review.

12. Display of status of questions using different colors and symbols

for all questions of the paper.

13. Disabling of exit from test software for the period of examination,

i.e., the candidate cannot exit at any point of time during the entire

duration of the test.

K) Invigilation – Announcement of instructions to the candidates,

admit card check, candidate identity verification, attendance recording

and collection of undertaking given by candidates will be carried out

by Invigilators. Attendance sheets, Instruction sheets and other

relevant documents would be provided by IRs. Invigilators should also

ensure proper conduct of examination and ensure that candidates use

no unfair means.

L) Zero Loss of Data – The bidder will ensure that there is no loss of

response related data for any candidate or any other data related to

the examination either from the client systems or from the main and

backup servers.

M) Generation of Event based Log (Audit Trail) – The bidder will

ensure that the event (click) based log (audit trail) for every candidate

will be generated and saved on the servers. The audit trail for every

candidate would be provided at the end of session in the format agreed

upon. The bidder would not keep/have any audit trail data with them

post handover.

N) Saving of Response - The bidder will ensure that the click-based

activity of every candidate will be saved on servers. This means that

the answer responses for each question at that click time will be only

saved/updated. The question clicks by candidates without a response

are also recorded in the database.

The final response data in a format specified by the Commission

should be uploaded to the server in the Master Control Room and

should also be copied in a pen drive within 30 minutes of the

completion of each session of examination.

The pen drive will be handed over to the IRs. The bidder will not

keep/have any response data with them post handover.

O) Security - The computers administering the examinations shall be

disconnected from the Internet and any other network other than the

one on which the examination is being conducted. No computers other

than the client systems used for the examination shall be on this

network during the examination. The computers shall be sanitized

(during pre-examination preparations) by booting a trusted image of

the Operating System (OS) that the examination is to be conducted on.

P) Monitoring - The server shall have the capability to start the

examination for all candidates, monitor the status of each candidate

(whether logged in, examination started, idle/active, disconnected,

submitted, etc.), award additional time for candidates based on the

instruction of the IRs, and close the examination. The server MUST

maintain an audit trail of every operation on the server. All server-side

audit trails are also the property of the Commission and shall be

handed over to the IR at the end of the examination.

Q) Master Control Facility – There will be a Master Control Facility

consisting of Master Control Rooms in the premises of Commission’s

office at Patiala. The activities at each Test Center will be monitored in

the Master Control Facility.

At the Master Control Room, the bidder should provide at least 2

technical personnel who are well versed with the Online Examination

Software. These personnel will interact with the TAs in each of the Test

Centers. A secure and highly reliable server should be set up in the

Master Control Room.

At the end of examination in a session, the candidate response data

and audit trail data from each of the Test Centers will be uploaded to

the servers at the Master Control Facility.

R) Overall Conduct of Examination and Security of Examination

Centers

R.1 The entire operations of the Commission’s online examination will

be under the name of PPSC and its designated logo.

At no point of time and location will the identity of the bidder be

displayed in public domain.

R.2 The bidder shall ensure that the Test Centers are kept in

examination-friendly environments with no disturbances from

external sources. The bidder will also ensure the secrecy of the

examination material and will support the Commission in maintaining

the secrecy of the examination material.

Any decision by the Commission’s appointed Institute Representatives

(IRs) in this regard shall be final. The bidder will also ensure that the

examination is held in a candidate-friendly environment and enough

security arrangements have been made to ensure the safety of

examination material and the persons involved in the conduct of

examination.

(III) POST EXAMINATION WORK

S) Adequate storage

S.1 Individual candidate-wise, item-wise responses and audit trail will

be captured and loaded into a physical storage medium such as hard

drive or pen drive in duplicate in the presence of IRs.

The CDs or pen drives will be handed over to the IRs.

The data will also be uploaded to a server at the Master Control

Facility. After the confirmation of proper transfer of data to the server

at the Master Control Facility, the TAs in the presence of IRs will delete

the responses and audit trails in the hard disks of the main and backup

servers, and post which the bidder will not be responsible for any data

in the context of non-availability of data.

S.2 Sending Emails to each candidate: The responses made by a

candidate during his/her online examination will be sent to his /her

email ID for information and record.

S.3 Result preparation: Thereafter, the result shall be prepared by

the bidder on the basis of the final Answer key which would be

provided by the Commission.

Schedule-B

Volume of Work

Type of Objective type exams (On the basis of no.of candidates)

Name Frequency of conducting exam in a year

No. of candidates (Approx.)

Major exams State Civil Services, Preliminary Examination

1 10,000 to 40,000

Middle level exams

Medical Officers, Sub Divisional Engineers, Managers, etc

5-7 1000 to 10,000 (each)

Minor exams District level Officers/Welfare Officers/ Audit Officers

8-10 Below 1000

TECHNICAL BID

ANNEXURE-I

NAME OF AGENCY: ……………………………….. ADDRESS: ……………………………………………..

E-mail: ……………. Tel: …………………..Fax: …………………….. Mobile: …………………………………………

Criteria Give details (with proof)

1. Company Profile along with supporting documents

2. Reference, information and certificates from the respective clients certifying technical, delivery and execution capability of the bidder should be signed and the contact numbers of all such clients should be mentioned.

3. Details of Manpower

4. Details of centres in Punjab/ Chandigarh, or any other place where the online examinations have earlier been conducted

5. Earnest Money Deposit of Rs. 1,00,000/- in the form of Bank draft drawn in favour of Secretary, Punjab Public Service Commission, Patiala.

6. Latest VAT Clearance Certificate or VAT payment Challan from concerned Government.

7. Original Tender Document duly signed.

8. Audited balance sheet of the last two years along with certificate of incorporation and also certificate of commencement of business in the case of Public Limited Company.

9. Copy of the PAN Card 10. Certificate from C.A.

stating that turnover is more than Twenty five Crore from related field as on 01st April, 2013.

11. Copy of latest valid solvency Certificate worth not less than Twenty five Crore from Scheduled/ Nationalised / Reputed Foreign/Private Bank having office or branch in Patiala/ Chandigarh.

12. Copies of the latest certificate stating that Bidder’s company or Director/Owner of the company have not been declared by any Court or Competent Authorities to be involved in any fraudulent activity(Economical & Criminal).

13. Detailed note explaining the scope of work understood by the Agency/ Company and which shall be executed by it.

14. Copy of Income Tax Return for the last three years up to assessment year 2012-2013.

15. Detailed lists/procedures of quality control, which the Agency/ Company propose to conduct during the execution of work.

16. Authorization Certificate of the representative of the Company attending the bid opening process.

17. Copy of Certificate for compliance with established Information Security Standards such as ISO 27001 certificate.

18. Certificate that the Company has not been disqualified/ debarred/ blacklisted by any Government Department.

NAME OF AGENCY:

Signature: (with Seal)

ADDRESS:____________

FINANCIAL BID

ANNEXURE-II NAME OF AGENCY: ……………………………….. COMPLETE ADDRESS: …………………………………………….. E-mail: ……………. Tel: …………………..Fax: …………………….. Mobile: ………………………………………… ASSIGNMENT Rate for executing

the task as per Scope of Work (Schedule-A) per Candidate (In words and figures)*Inclusive of all taxes and service charges.

Conduct of Online Examination

NAME OF AGENCY:

Signature: (with Seal)

ADDRESS:_______________ Date:________