Pune Municipal Corporation Tops Maharashtra In E-Governance Reforms But Faces Heat Over ₹8 Crore SAP Underuse

Pune: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) recently secured the first rank in Maharashtra for e-governance reforms, earning accolades for its digital initiatives. However, concerns have been raised by activists and residents over the PMC's underutilization of the advanced SAP (Systems, Applications and Products) software, implemented at a cost of ₹8 crore.

Vivek Velankar, an activist, said, "Back in 2017, PMC decided to bring in SAP, a world-class software system designed to make its finance and material departments faster, more transparent, and better connected. A reputed company, Atos Origin, was hired to install it, and the system finally went live in April 2022. Even three years later, both the old and new systems are being run simultaneously. While the finance department uses SAP only partially, the central store department does not use it at all.”

The SAP’s capabilities can generate a balance sheet within two days, but PMC continues to prepare budgets on Excel spreadsheets. The failure to fully migrate has made the system “virtually redundant,” undermining hopes that it would improve transparency, speed, and integration in the civic administration, Velankar pointed out. 

Krishna Thakur, a resident, stressed that if there were issues with the rollout or gaps in the system, PMC should have had mechanisms to identify and address them. Instead, the system continues to remain underutilised even after crores of taxpayers’ money have been spent.

The residents have urged the municipal commissioner to ensure that, from October 1, the old computer system is discontinued and both departments are mandated to work entirely on SAP.

“It is the responsibility of PMC to see that the ₹8 crore spent from taxpayers’ money is put to meaningful use,” Velankar said, calling for urgent corrective measures.

The Free Press Journal tried to get a comment from the commissioner, but didn't get any response.