A Class 12 student on Saturday raised serious allegations against the CBSE over the tendering process behind the controversial On-Screen Marking (OSM) system.
The 17-year-old, Sarthak Sidhant, is now going viral for claiming that there were "at least 15 discrepancies" behind the scenes of the Central Board of Secondary Education's tender with Coempt EduTeck, the firm that now handles the OSM system.
This comes just days after the board itself responded to Rahul Gandhi's claims that there was a "conspiracy" behind the OSM contract being awarded to Coempt, despite its controversies in Telangana in 2019 under the name 'Globarena'.
"CBSE rejects the allegations regarding the award of contract to Coempt EduTeck. It is erroneous, misleading and not based on facts. CBSE has followed the General Financial Rules protocols scrupulously in the awarding of the contract to the agency," the board wrote in an X post on May 27.
What are Sidhant's claims?
The Class 12 student and self-described tech enthusiast from Ranchi, Jharkhand also released a video, shared by ANI, in which he claims that Coempt is a company with a "shady background", which led to the alleged suicides of 23 students.
One of the major claims he makes about the tender process is that the CBSE issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) thrice before awarding Coempt with the contract for the OSM system.
The system has caused backlash among students and their parents across the country, who have complained about blurred answer sheets and improper marking.
"There were three clauses of poor performances which was completely wiped out from the new RFP. In the earlier RFP, there was a clause called 'blacklisted earlier', whereas in the new RFP, it was changed to 'blacklisted currently'. Why would the board want a service provider which was blacklisted earlier?" he questioned in the video.
He also questioned why Coempt was awarded the contract when it could only clear the Rs 50 crore turnover requirement by a razor-thin margin, with a reported annual turnover of Rs 50.86 crore.
"The Razor-thin Margin of less than 1.7 per cent is suspicious, especially when in the old RfP’s Pre-Bid Clarifications, Shree Info Solution asked CBSE to keep the minimum eligible average annual turnover for last 3 years at Rs 30 crore to promote fair competition, arguing that Rs 30 crore was already higher than the estimated project cost. CBSE rejected them," Sidhant pointed out.
He added that the full set of claims about 15 alleged issues with the CBSE tender were published on a blog post on his website, in which he also writes about history and philosophy, apart from general tech blogs and Python tutorials.
"I am hopeful that CBSE will answer my questions. I have raised important questions through my blog. I hope CBSE will ensure transparency over the tender system," he added in the video.
