New Delhi: A big controversy on procurement of Rs 35,000 crore worth equipment by telecom behemoth BSNL is brewing with position taken by the two government nominees on the Board, threatening mega expansion programme of the PSU.
While the major equipment supplier Ericsson has lowered its price substantially after negotiations for the GSM expansion contract, the two government nominees—joint secretary J S Deepak and a senior DoT official P K Mittal-- have raised some proprietary issues concerning the tender that was cleared early 2009.
When contacted BSNL CMD declined to get into the matter
raised by the government nominees but said that "The Board
will look into all the issues and take appropriate decision."
Cancellation or any delay in the contract could hit hard
BSNL at a time when government is thinking of disinvestment, a
senior official said on condition of anonymity adding that in
such an eventuality only corporate rivals could be benefited.
A note given by DoT Joint Secretary JS Deepak has raised
questions on the process followed by BSNL in evaluating the
tender and is against the CVC guidelines.
"It was a single bid throughout the country... and BSNL
has not done a comparative analysis on the basis of total cost
to the company," the note by Deepak said.
When contacted, he said "This was a comment to BSNL as a
Board member and government nominee" adding that a similar
note was also submitted by another nominee P K Mittal.
BSNL officials said some vested interest do not want this
tender to go through.
Asked whether some DoT officials are interfering into the
tender business of the PSU, the officials declined to comment
but said that someone is working so that it (93 million GSM
lines tender) does not go through.
According to sources, Ericsson, who was the lowest bidder
for the Northern and Eastern region, has lowered the price to
a level seen in the last tender and this was the desired
level.
The note by Deepak, the government nominee, has said that
the 93 million tender should be reconsidered indicating that
it could either be scrapped or the size of the tender could be
reduced.
BSNL has been losing the market share to private sector
due to its inability in timely adding the capacity and
executing projects in view of government hurdles.
On the issue that there was only one bidder throughout
the country, Ericsson in the North and East and Huawei in
South, BSNL CMD had said that at the time of inviting bids
there were other players too.
It was only after the technical evaluation that the
single bidder remained in the fray.
Earlier, BSNL had put on hold the Advance Purchase Order
(APO) to Huawei saying conditional acceptance of orders cannot
be entertained by the PSU.
PTI
First Published: Friday, December 25, 2009, 15:23