IMMEDIATE BY SPEED POST

No.D.33011/1/2009-Admn. Date: 28.08.2009

To

Subject:-Tender Enquiry for Data Processing Work relating to Examinations conducted by the Staff Selection Commission, Eastern Region

Sirs,

This Commission undertakes the work of recruitment for middle and subordinate level technical and non-technical posts of the Government of India. The Commission conducts various examinations every year for this purpose. This office intends to entrust the entire pre-examination work (Manual and/or Data Processing) during the year 2009-2010 to Data Processing Agencies having relevant experience and infrastructure. The details of the description of work, terms and conditions etc. are given in the Annexure –I. The details are also available in the web-site of the SSC(ER)[ ].

If your firm is interested in undertaking the said job you may send your quotation of rate in the format given in Annexure-II and III to the Regional Director, Staff Selection Commission at the above mentioned address of this Office, in sealed envelope superscribed with “Quotation for data processing work 2009-2010”. Your quotation should reach this office by 11thOctober, 2009.

Yours faithfully

Encl: As above.

(ANINDYA ACHARYA)

DEPUTY DIRECTOR

Annexure-I

Government of India

Staff Selection Commission

Eastern Region

Department of Personnel & Training

8th floor, 1stM.S.OBuilding, NizamPalace,

234/4, A.J.C.Bose Road, Kolkata-700020.

Subject: Tender Enquiry for Data Processing Work relating to
Examinations conducted by the Staff Selection Commission,
Eastern Region

The Staff Selection Commission, an organisation under the Government of India, Department of Personnel & Training, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, undertakes recruitment for middle and subordinate level technical and non-technical posts of the Government of India. The Commission conducts various examinations every year, which include two major examinations having two stages viz. Preliminary and Main Examinations. For the main examinations candidates who qualify in the Preliminary Examination are eligible to appear.

The Commission invites rate for the entire pre-examination work i.e. (i) manual work as well as data processing work, or (ii) only the data processing work, which will include scanning of application forms, clipping of photograph and signature of the applicant in the Admission Certificates and printing of admission certificates, to from firms specialized in computer management capable of auto segregation of large number of fields. The firms desirous of participating must have their Head Quarters in Kolkata. The stages involved are given below.

A. ITEMS OF WORK TO BE PERFORMED BY DATA PROCESSING AGENCY (OPEN COMPETITIVE EXAMINATIONS).

I. Manual

  1. The Data Processing Agency will collect envelopes containing application forms from this office and acknowledge receipt of the total number of the envelopes received. Unrelated documents are to be returned to the Commission along with a list thereof within seven days of receipt of the last lot of applications.
  2. The DPA will open the envelopes, sort out the applications centre-wise and then stamp Roll Nos. by machine on the top of the application, on the self-addressed postcard, on the self-addressed envelope. For this purpose, a 10-digit numbering machine must be used. An envelope may contain more than one application and other papers. Such envelopes along with the contents must be returned to the Commission without doing necessary data processing. The instructions from the Commission should be followed in respect of processing of these applications. No unilateral decision shall be taken by the DPA. The centre-codes of different Centres of Examination will be intimated by the Commission.
  3. The envelopes in which the applications of candidates are received form part of the dossiers of the candidates and hence they must be retained duly tagged/stapled along with the application.
  4. Centre-wise break-up of applications must be intimated by the DPA to the Commission within two weeks from the closing date of receipt of applications.
  1. Documents are to be arranged in the following order:-

i)Self-addressed post card on top

ii)Postal order, if applicable

iii)Application form

iv)Testimonials etc.,(in respect of Main Examination)

v)Self-addressed envelope

vi)Other envelopes

vii)Envelope of the application

  1. The DPA will indicate the total amount of CRFS/IPOs received on every application.
  1. A consolidated list showing number of candidates paying fee through IPOs/Central Recruitment Fees Stamps (CRFS) will have to be furnished to the Commission. Adequate care should be taken while indicating the amount on the application form so that bona fide candidates are not rejected for non-submission of fees or payment of less fee.
  2. IPOs received as fees from candidates are to be returned to the Commission centre-wise in bundles. The amount shown in the list and amount of IPOs handed over by the DPA must tally. The DPA will be responsible for any discrepancy and Commission will have the right jto adjust shortfall due to such discrepancy out of the security deposit.
  3. The DPA will arrange the applications along with the enclosures serially (Roll No. wise) in Roll No. blocks of 100 and keep the same inside a cover file (specimen may be seen at this Commission’s office). All the cover files will be marked with name of Examination, centre of examination and Roll No. block of the candidates. Rejected applications are to be returned in separate folders/covers.(Cover files will be supplied by the Commission).
  4. After allotment of Roll Numbers on the applications, the IPOs, Post cards and self-addressed stamped envelopes are to be removed from the applications. While the envelopes are to be arranged in Roll No. order in bundles of one hundred each, the self addressed stamped Post cards may be kept separately and handed over to the Commission.
  5. The scrutiny points regarding the eligibility of candidates only in respect of Preliminary/Main/other Examinations will be provided by the Commission along with the work order. However, the general points of scrutiny are as follows:-

i)No photograph

ii)Unsigned application

iii)No signature below photograph

iv)No fee/less fee(where fees due)

v)Fee paid other than the mode mentioned in notice

vi)Overage/Underage

vii)No Caste/Educational Qualification/Date of Birth/Ex-Serviceman/Departmental certificate

viii)Non possession of Educational Qualification

ix)OBC certificate not in prescribed format/ not issued by competent authority.

The DPA has to check the applications on the above mentioned points except the point mentioned in point (ix) above.

The grounds of cancellation should be mentioned on top of the application form. The DPA will send a list showing rejected applications and the grounds for rejection of the same along with the respective application forms to the Commission for decision on the matter. Admission certificate of such candidate should not be despatched unless and until cleared by the Commission. The DPA should prepare cancellation memorandum indicating the ground of rejection of every candidate whose candidature is cancelled.

12. The DPA should send a separate list of OBC candidates along with the respective applications to the Commission after Data entry. The applications of eligible OBC candidates will be handed over to DPA by the Commission for remaining works.

II. Data Entry & related works:

13.The DPA will enter the data in floppies/CD as per prescribed file structure. Data entered must be verified through double entry system and data should be error-free. The DPA will furnish a certificate to the effect that all data have been checked through the double entry system and that the data is error free. In addition, certain reports are to be generated (particulars to be given). After entry of the final data, Roll Nos. of the eligible candidates the data are to be randomised in consultation with the Commission through generation of six digit Ticket Nos and after randomisation the randomised data should be sent to the Commission in CD. The Roll Nos will correspond to the machine numbered center code and index number whereas the randomised order will be reflected in the ticket number. The randomisation of Roll Nos. should be confined to the particular centre i.e Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, Port Blair etc. In case of any defect in the floppy/CD or in case the information stored on it cannot be read the DPA will supply at their own cost another floppy/CD containing the information. For all Examinations photograph and signature of the candidate have to be scanned from the applications submitted by the candidates and printed on the Admission Certificates.

The photographs (black & white) so scanned must be stored in JPEG format. Each photograph o the candidate must be identified through a unique file name which must be the same as the Roll No. of the candidate.

Requirement for Web-site

The Commission has introduced the facility of interaction through the website of Eastern Regional office. Among the many facilities provided, one would be the facility of downloading Duplicate Admission Certificates for those candidates who do not receive the original, To facilitate the same the DP would provide the following as detailed:-

i) Complete database of all candidates including those whose candidatures have been rejected. The database should be provided in one single table in .mdb format.

ii) Files of scanned photographs and signatures of all candidates whose details are available in the database mentioned in (i) above.

Each photograph with signature should be scanned and stored in the manner explained in para 13(bold & underlined).

iii) Photograph scanned from the application should be of 4X5 cms size. There should not be any distortion due to resizing/cropping during the process of scanning.

Quality of scanned photographs:-

The Commission receive feedbacks stating that the quality of photographs scanned and placed in Admission Certificates sometimes is hazy and blurred. Quality of photographs is an essential scrutiny parameter for the Commission. Utmost priority should be given to its proper resolution and printing. If the quality of scanned photographs and its resolution is not of appropriate standard, it would be taken as a deficiency in service & the Commission will invoke the penalty clause.

14.The DPA will print Admission Certificates containing the name, address, Roll Nos., Ticket No. of candidates, Name and address of the venue, name of the Examination, Date and Time, scanned photograph and signature of candidates, etc. For this purpose the stationery required for printing of Admission Certificates with scanned photograph and signature of candidates has to be arranged by the DPA themselves. Generally, A-4 size paper with 80 GSM thickness is used for printing of such Admission Certificates. The format of the Admission Certificate for each examination will, however, be provided by the Commission. Venue list with Ticket No. blocks for each venue will be supplied by the Commission. The Admission Certificates are to be printed and handed over to the Commission centre-wise in Roll Nos. order together with the self-addressed stamped envelopes arranged in Roll No. order.

15.All the applications must be returned to the Commission as soon as data entry work is complete. The applications are to be arranged neatly and kept in cover files in the space provided by the Commission. The DPA must ensure that no application form is lost /damaged during processing.

16. After completion of examination Data Processor will be handed over Attendance Lists of each venue. Roll Nos. and names of candidates who have been marked as present(P) in this list will be entered in a separate data base. This data base has to be matched with the original data base and a copy of the database has to be handed over to the Commission’s office. It is the responsibility of the Data Processor to come to this office and collect the Attendance List by segregating the Attendance List from other documents received from all the venues of the concerned examination.

17.A time schedule for various items of work will be prepared in consultation with the DPA and will be specified in the work order. This time schedule for the different stages of work is very important and must be strictly adhered to.

In case where only the data processing work is entrusted to the Data Processor, manual handling of the application will be done by the Commission. The DPA will only be required to enter data, randomise data in consultation with the Commission, print out Admission Certificate and do the scanning of application as per requirement in addition to the generation of the reports and other actions mentioned in Part B onwards below. The other terms of the contract will also apply to the Agency, mutatis mutandis in such cases.

18. Future compatibility:-

The Commission may migrate to a Common Application Form which can be scanned, the specimen of which is enclosed. The salient features of such common application forms are:-

a) OMR/ICR based form

b) Each form will be bar coded

c) Each form will be of single page

For processing such forms the availability of two such machines of the following calibrations are required:-

a)Mark sense (bubbles, checks, tick marks)

b)Bar code

c)Key from image (for open ended questions or comments)

d) Grey scale image capture for photographs and signatures

e)Dropout colours to enable both pencil and ink read capabilities

f)Handprint and machine print characters interpreted and converted to ASCII data,

g)16 level OMR mark discrimination evaluator the relative darkness of a mark in order to discriminate between smudges and erasures and valid marks

h)The data so prepared has to be 100% error free.

The interested Data Processing Agencies are required to clearly state whether it will be in a position to adapt to the above mentioned new system and carry out data processing work in the event of the Commission migrating to Common Application Form.

B. ITEMS OF WORK TO BE PERFORMED BY DATA PROCESSING AGENCY (SELECTION POSTS):

1. For Selection posts the DPA shall have to do the data entry as per the file structure provided by the Commission, calculation of percentage of marks of every candidate on the prescribed Educational Qualification (if required), printing of Admission Certificates with scanned photograph and signature/ printing of Interview Call letters, printing of photobearing Attendance Sheets in duplicate.

C. GENERATION OF VARIOUS REPORTS:-

1.i) List of candidates who have submitted more than one application (duplicate

searching)

ii) Venue wise and shift wise attendance list of the candidates in duplicate

iii) Venue wise and shift wise attendance sheet (photo bearing).

iv) Statistical reports on the following:-

a) Male/Female candidates

b) Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe/OBC/Ex-Servicemen/ Orthopaedically

Handicapped/General candidates.

c) List of ineligible candidates highlighting the reason for ineligibility

d) Cancellation memorandum in respect of all ineligible candidates.

e) Master index in Roll Number order-one copy

f) Alpha list (centre-wise list of the candidates in alphabetical order of their names)

- one copy

g) List of late receipt application-one copy.

h) Data sheet in the proforma placed in Annexure -V.

i) A separate CD having all the data as per File Structure provided by the

Commission alongwith the Work Order.

j) The DPA shall copy the entire data ona floppy(3 1\2)/CD-ROM and hand it

over to the Commission immediately on completion of the job and in any case not later than 10 days from the date of the examination. The data file structure will be provided by the Commission.

  1. The computer stationery is to be provided by the DPA. Some of the lists required (such as the Attendance List) will be in duplicate/triplicate and two/three part stationery as the case may be, is to be used. Usually, 15 x 12” computer stationery is to be used unless instructed otherwise.

D.EARNEST MONEY

Whenever any specific examination work is entrusted they will be required to furnish Earnest Money @ 5% of the estimated value of the work at the time of entering into contract for any particular examination, which will be refunded after adjustment of any due at the time of final payment in respect of that particular examination.

E.CANCELLATION

  1. In case of any mistake or delay in the supply of the output reports/floppy according to the schedule or any lapse on the part of Data Processing Agency or if the Commission’s instructions are not followed, the Commission shall have the right to rescind the contract and will have the right to get the work done through other agency at the risk and cost of Data Processing Agency. Any loss arising out of the same shall be borne by the Data Processing Agency.
  2. The Commission reserves the right to cancel the contract at any time if the job assigned to Data Processing Agency is not according to the guidelines/instructions issued by the Commission without assigning any reason whatsoever and the decision of the Commission in this regard shall be final and binding. In that case the Data Processing Agency shall forfeit the Earnest Money.
  3. The Data Processing Agency shall not terminate the contract after the commencement of the job relating to a particular examination. The contract can be terminated by serving one month’s notice but only after the entire job relating to the particular examination is fully and satisfactorily completed.
  4. In case of any dispute as to interpretation of the terms of the contract, the decision of the Regional Director(ER) shall be final and Binding.

F.PAYMENT