SERVICE STC

SPECIAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR MARKET SURVEY SERVICE

1. Preamble

A. All Market Survey Service contracts placed through GeM shall be governed by the following set of Terms and Conditions:
I. General terms and conditions for Goods and Services.
II. Service STC contained in this document
III. BID / Reverse Auction specific ATC
B. The above terms and conditions are in reverse order of precedence i.e. ATC supersedes Service specific STC which supersede GTC, whenever there are any conflicting provisions. 
C. This document represents the Special Terms and Conditions (“STC”) and the Service Level Agreement (SLA) governing the contract between the Buyer and Service Provider. The purpose of this document is to outline the scope of work, stakeholders’ obligations and terms and conditions of all services covered as mutually understood by the stakeholders.

2. Objectives and Goal

The objective of this document is to ensure that all the special terms and conditions are in place to ensure consistent delivery of services to the buyer by the service provider. The goal of this document is to:

• Provide clear reference to service ownership, accountability, roles and responsibilities of both parties
• Present a clear, concise and measurable description of services offered to the buyer
• Establish terms and conditions for all the involved stakeholders, it also includes the actions to be taken in case of failure to comply with conditions specified
• To ensure that both the parties understand the consequences in case of termination of services due to any of the stated reasons

This document will act as a reference document that both the parties have understood the above-mentioned terms and conditions and have agreed to comply by the same.

3. Stakeholders

The main stakeholders associated with this agreement are:

Buyer: The Buyer is responsible to provide clear instructions, approvals and timely payments for the services availed as per the contractual terms

1. Service Provider: The service provider is responsible to provide all the required services in timely manner. The service provider may also include seller, supplier/bidder/contractor, any authorized agents, assignees, successors, and nominees as per the context and as described in the document

The responsibilities and obligations of the stakeholders have been outlined in this document. The document also encompasses payment terms and penalties in case of non-adherence to the defined terms and conditions.

4. Service Scope
5. The purpose of this service is to conduct qualitative and/or quantitative surveys for the purpose of scheme evaluation, impact assessment, baseline survey, citizen survey, feedback, program evaluation etc depending on buyer context.
6. Along with data collection, pre survey work like designing of questionnaire, sampling strategy etc as well as post survey data analysis and report-writing may also be part of the scope of the work (if mentioned by the buyer).
7. Terms and Conditions
   • Buyer’s Obligations
8. Buyer to provide detailed scope of work while creating the bid. Suggestive format has been provided in the service details tab.
9. Buyer will use its best efforts to ensure that it will provide the service provider with work permits and/or such other documents as necessary to enable the service providers to conduct the survey. Buyer will issue to officials, agents and representatives all such instructions as may be necessary or appropriate for the prompt and effective implementation of the survey.

• Buyer will designate a nodal officer for any coordination such as approvals during the implementation of the project.

• Price Variation Clause:

  "It is advisable to include Price Variation Clause in the long term contracts to take care of the increase/decrease in prices of various ingredients which majorly affect the overall price of the service. Buyers are therefore advised to include the Price Variation Clause (PVC) in the bid document through ATC for long term contracts. The additional payment, if any, on account of PVC can be done offline till such time online functionality is developed on GeM."

   
  • Service Provider’s Obligations

1. To the extent service provider shall inform the provider of such information or providing information on other’s behalf about such survey  and only collect, use, store or otherwise process (collectively, “Process”) personal details and/or confidential Information that can be linked to specific individuals (“Personal Data”) in connection with the performance of Services under this contract, Service provider shall process such personal data in accordance with applicable law, rules and regulations including (without limitation) the Information Technology Act, 2000 (the “Act”), and the Information Technology (Reasonable security practices and procedures and sensitive personal data or information) Rules, 2011 (the “Rules”).Without prejudice to the generality of the preceding clause, Service provider represents that Service provider shall implement and maintain reasonable security practices and procedures (including, without limitation, managerial, technical, operational and physical security control measures) designed to protect such Personal Data against unauthorized access, damage, use, modification, disclosure or impairment, as required by the Rules (“Data Protection Procedures”). Service provider shall not further disclose or transfer Personal Data to any other person or entity, except as required by applicable law or court order. Service provider shall not retain Personal Data for longer than is reasonably required for the performance of their services or till such period allowed by law, whichever is earlier.
2. The service provider shall monitor progress of all the activities related to the execution of this contract and shall submit to the buyer, progress reports with reference to all related work, milestones, and their progress during the implementation phase.
3. The raw data / processed data/findings should not be disclosed by the service provider to any third party without prior approval of the buyer. 
4. It shall be ensured that the data collected is complete, valid, relevant and appropriate to the survey objectives and instruments. Data collected shall be regularly assessed for accuracy, validity, consistency, appropriateness. 
5. Strict compliance to guidelines for implementation of data collection is essential to ensure that the objectives of survey are fully met. Since the data will be used for making high level programmatic and policy decisions, it is very important to ensure that the implementation of survey work strictly adheres to the stipulated survey design, sampling procedures and guidelines for data management. 
6. The service provider needs to maintain adequate backup of survey data to avoid data loss/damage.
7. The service provider is responsible for managing the activities of its personnel and will hold itself responsible for any misdemeanours on the part of its personnel.
8. The service provider shall keep track of all administrative work such as attendance, productivity per day and address disciplinary issues of implementation staff.
9. The service provider shall be responsible for the deployment, transportation, accommodation and other requirements of all its employees required for the execution of the work and provision of services for all costs/charges in connection thereof.
10. The service provider is responsible for following the provisions of labour welfare legislation and other similar legislations, rules, and orders as issued from time to time. The service provider will follow Indian job safety regulations and will release the buyer from any claims or obligations deriving from accidents or deaths caused by the service provider's negligence. All indemnities stemming from such accidents shall be paid by the service provider, and the buyer will not be held liable or responsible.
11. In the event of any malpractice at the time of implementation of project such as recruiting respondents from locations not listed or selected for the survey, submitting dubious data without conducting interviews, documenting personal identifiers of respondents, accepting bribes, is brought to the notice of the buyer department, buyer may request for immediate suspension of the staff responsible and the service provider will redo the concerned portion of the data collection work at no additional cost to the buyer.

• Standard Terms and Conditions

1. All deliverables / reports / work developed, prepared and completed including work-in-progress, during the Term of the contract and extension thereof, shall belong to the buyer and shall remain sole and exclusive property of the buyer and all the Intellectual Property Rights in respect of the same shall vest with the buyer.

1. Limitation of Liability: Notwithstanding anything to the contrary herein, in no event shall the buyer be liable for the death, injury or accident to the staff engaged by the Service Provider for any such study which may arise out of and in the course of performing duties and shall not be liable to any damages or compensation to such person or third party.

• Indemnification Clause: Service Provider shall indemnify the Buyer from any third party claims, for the data breach of personal details, in addition to other remedies and damages available to the Buyer including seeking for temporary injunction to restrain further violation of the breach of such data.

1. Payment Schedule

1. The Payment Procedure shall be in as specified in the General Terms and Conditions of GeM.
2. Payment as per payment terms provided by buyer in the bid document.

1. Formulae Used

Total Price = A*B

Where,

A = Lumpsum price to be quoted by the service provider

B = This should be kept as 1

1. Penalties and Termination