- In this method, a private player (say P1) goes to the government voluntarily with an innovative proposal.
- The concerned Department or the Ministry will put his proposal on it’s website so that other private players can give suggestions to improve it or challenge it by a better proposal.
- Suppose another private player (say P2) challenges the original proposal and it is better than the original in terms of cost and technological aspects.
- Then an expert committee will accept the best proposal and the original proposer will get a chance to accept it if it an improvement on his proposal. If P1 rejects the best offer, the challenger will get to develop the project then.
- The committee can also ask P1 to bring a new proposal to counter the best proposal (proposed by the challenger) decided by it.
- Or, the government can even buy the intellectual property rights of the best proposal from the proposer and can then invite bids from other private players by issuing a tender.
- The government will have to reimburse reasonable costs incurred by P1 in preparing suo moto proposals, if they end up as the loser.
Positive Aspects
- It is not new to India. It is being used in states like Karnataka, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Punjab for housing and road construction projects.
- Many stuck PPP projects got a new lease of life using the Swiss challenge Method.
- Even the Supreme Court in 2009 accepted it as a valid system for awarding contracts.
- The Union Cabinet in 2015 gave its approval to redevelop 400 railway stations using the method. This is because of insufficient resources with Railways to develop them on its own.
- Local projects that are not national priorities will benefit.
- As the projects will be put online, this will discourage non-serious proposals.
Negative Aspects
- Unsolicited ( voluntary) proposals bring information asymmetries in the procurement process and result in lack of transparency and in the fair and equal treatment of potential bidders in the procurement process.
- Crony capitalism ( cartelisation i.e. private players helping each other by proposing frivolous counter proposals)
- Lack of enough challengers which can affect efficiency.
- Even the Planning Commission had warned of using the Swiss Challenge method as an exception and not as a rule.
