Procurement Pilot: Bid Compliance

Registry-verified bid compliance for government procurement. Fifteen checks against ten registries. Code decides, AI explains, a named officer signs. SIH 2026.

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Inspiration

A procurement officer checking a GeM bid today opens portal after portal: GST, income tax, MCA21, Udyam, EPFO, the debarment list, then the bid documents. It is slow, and two officers can reach two different answers on the same bid.

What it does

  • Runs fifteen fixed checks on every bid against ten registry sources and scores it out of 100 with a risk level (Low, Medium, High, Critical)
  • Explains every flag in plain language, plus a "why not 100" line listing every point lost
  • Reads uploaded bid PDFs and cross-checks GSTIN, PAN, Udyam, CIN, DPIIT number and legal name against the bid
  • Screens every pair of bids on a tender for collusion: prices within 0.5%, submissions within 5 minutes, shared addresses, cover bids
  • Leaves the decision to a named officer. Passing a flagged bid needs a senior approver and a written reason, and every decision lands in the audit log

How we built it

  • Checks in plain code: each returns PASS, FLAG or FAIL with a sentence naming the real numbers and the source. Same bid, same answer, every time
  • One adapter per registry (GSTN, Income Tax, MCA21, Udyam, DPIIT, NSIC, EPFO, ESIC, DigiLocker, GeM / CPPP debarment), so going live means swapping one lookup function
  • AI that explains, never approves: Sarvam's sarvam-105b writes the explanation but cannot set the score or verdict. PAN and GSTIN are masked before anything reaches it
  • FastAPI on Vercel Functions, Postgres on Neon, server-enforced officer, approver and admin roles, 26 API tests plus a frontend parity test in CI

Challenges we ran into

Real registry access needs government onboarding, so every lookup reads sample records and the app labels each one as simulated. The rules that need no lookup are real: the GSTIN check digit, the PAN inside the GSTIN, Make in India class thresholds and EMD exemptions.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  • Covers all fourteen outcomes asked for in problem statement SIH26100 (Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas)
  • Live deployment and a full 4:52 walkthrough video

What's next

  • OCR for scanned bid PDFs
  • Live GSTN and Udyam lookups through API Setu and a GST Suvidha Provider
  • One pilot with a CPSE procurement team

Student prototype built by Team Ace Azael (ACE Engineering College) for Smart India Hackathon 2026. Not an official government system, and all records are sample data.

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