With allegations of massive corruption and the Centre putting the Rs 2441 crore BharatNet Optic Fibre Cable tender on hold, the Tamil Nadu state government has once again incorporated changes in the tender clauses. This time, the changes have been made to take back one of the restrictive clauses which will result in saving Rs 606 crores. The changes have been incorporated fresh, on May 9.
Anti-corruption NGO Arappor Iyakkam had filed a complaint with the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) about the modifications brought in the tender by the Tamil Nadu Fibre Net Corporation (TANFINET) on April 15. A corrigendum incorporating changes in two of the tender clauses was issued on April 15, which was subsequently taken in the form of a complaint by the NGO to the Centre. The initial notification issued in December said that the bidder has to have a cumulative annual turnover of Rs 405 crores for the last three financial years, which was changed to “average annual turnover of Rs 405 for last three years. The other clause changed was the requirements for the consortium companies and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) was made tougher through the corrigendum.
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Incidentally, now, TANFINET has once again on May 9 modified the tender clause with regard to OEM. “The new changes brought in by the corporation will alone result in saving Rs 606 crores for the government exchequer,” tells Jayaram Venkatesan, convenor of Arappor Iyakkam. Now with some parts of the tender conditions being changed once again, the April 15 corrigendum has been deleted. Jayaraman says now the restrictive clause has been taken back. The taking back of this clause has happened in package A. Even with package A, says Jayaraman, the other restrictions with regard to increase in turnover, experience and proof of concept are still to be addressed.
Apart from this, the specifications for the router have also been changed now. Only one OEM produced the routers with the specifications. “When TANFINET issued a clarification saying all IP/MPLS routers should be from the same OEM including the NOC router, it was evident that they were making changes in the restrictive clause,” points out Jayaraman. The difference in cost of both routers was of the order of Rs 10 lakh and with the tender seeking 1515 routers, the difference in cost was of the order of Rs 350-400 crore, tells Jayaraman.
“While in Package A, there is effort to favour a particular foreign player, in package B,C and D the favouritism clauses of increasing turnover and experience multiple times and inclusion of proof of concept to bring in subjectively and discretion is said to favour a particular domestic OEM player, against others,” says Jayaraman.
Incidentally, in the May 9 corrigendum the government has also accepted a clarification which suggested that the original tender condition was correct and deleted the April 15 corrigendum.
