Finally the Smart City Development Corporation have handed the files related to the tender process of ‘Master System Integrated for providing a cloud based common data centre and disaster management’, to the officials of the Economic Offences Wing, here on Friday.
The name of the then commissioner of urban development department Vivek Agarwal had came in the complaint.
Earlier many times the officials of EOW had returned empty hands from the SCDC when they had gone to take the tender file. The Free Press had reported on Monday (November 11) that the EOW may conduct raid if the officials did not provides the papers to the EOW.
On Friday the four member EOW team reached the office of SCDC, the SCDC officials handover the entire file related to the tender to the team and later the team returned to the office in the evening.
On October 15, the EOW had registered the complaint and started the investigations to the tender process.
The Smart City project is one of the massive project which directly connects the common people to the government. As the Project was multidimensional in nature, the SCDC appointed a consultant firm which is expert in handling the work like Smart City Project and the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) appointed as a project consultant.
The department issued the tender of the Master System in the year 2017 in which BSNL, HECL, HP, Tech Mahindra, Vipro, UST Global and LNT companies participated.
Meantime the HP and PWC went in a contract in Kolkata a week before of the MP’s contract time, that they will going to work together for the Smart City projects.
In the tender process two ‘clash of interest’ occurred, one is related to the PWC and HP and the another is related to the PWC’s senior associate Vaibhav Agarwal, whose father was the Vivek Agarwal was the commissioner of the urban development department at the same period.
The tender process started and the HP which had quoted Rs 300 crore gets the contract and the BSNL which had quoted Rs 275 crore did not get the tender.
The BSNL filed the case in the High Court against the SCDC tender process. Later the BSNL withdrawn the case and become the partner of the HP.
The EOW found the suitable reasons to register the complaint against the tender process and other irregularities.
No more silly Excuses: Interestingly earlier the officials of the SCDC who were making silly excuses in providing the files, had made the call to the EOW office and asked them that they had prepared the papers and whenever they want to collect they can come.
