Arappor Iyakkam has sent a complaint of massive irregularity and Tender Collusion in the TamilNadu FiberNet Corporation Ltd Tenders of the IT Department of TamilNadu for laying fiber optic connectivity to all villages of TamilNadu. The complaint has been sent to the Chief Minister of Tamilnadu, Chief Secretary, Secretary to Department of Telecommunications, Central Vigilance Commission and Competition Commission of India. The complaint demanded the following action with immediate effect
Arappor Iyakkam has sent a complaint of massive irregularity and Tender Collusion in the TamilNadu FiberNet Corporation Ltd Tenders of the IT Department of TamilNadu for laying fiber optic connectivity to all villages of TamilNadu. The complaint has been sent to the Chief Minister of Tamilnadu, Chief Secretary, Secretary to Department of Telecommunications, Central Vigilance Commission and Competition Commission of India. The complaint demanded the following action with immediate effect
1. Immediately cancellation of the Corrigendum of all the packages which have brought in sweeping changes to the original tenders of Bharat Net TANFINET Tenders.
2. Suspend with immediate effect Hans Raj Verma IAS and Mr.Ravichandran IAS, for effecting such massive illegal changes.
3. Take Departmental and Criminal action on Mr.Hans Raj Verma IAS, Mr.Ravichandran IAS, other public servants and firms responsible for effecting such massive illegal changes in tender
In the complaint, they accused saying a brazen attempt is being made to pass huge illegality in the name of a corrigendum, under the cover of the Corona crisis! He pointed out the massive changes which have been made in the tender conditions in the nearly Rs 2000 crore TANFINET tenders for laying fiber optic connectivity to all Village Panchayats in Tamil Nadu. They accused that these changes were made to favour 2 specific companies and immediate action can thwart such attempts of favouritism and Corruption.
‘Bharatnet’ project is funded by the Government of India to provide connectivity to all Gram panchayats across the state by establishing an optical fiber cable network system. The Tamil Nadu Fibernet Corporation Limited (TANFINET) under the Department of Information Technology floated the tender with 4 packages NIT/TANFINET/001/PACKAGE-A with the tender value of Rs 350 crores, NIT/TANFINET/001/PACKAGE-B with the tender value of Rs 550 crores, NIT/TANFINET/001/PACKAGE-C with the tender value of Rs 990 crores and NIT/TANFINET/001/PACKAGE-D with the tender value of Rs 500 crores for a total of Rs 1950 crores. The tender documents along with its eligibility criteria were approved by Executive Committee of the Tamil Nadu Infrastructure Development Board (TNIDB, headed by the Chief Secretary and signed by 15 Secretaries to the Governments, who are members of this board.
The tenders were floated on 5/12/2019 and 6/12/2019. In January 2020, the news of the then Principal Secretary to Government, Information Technology Department, Dr. Santhosh Babu IAS applying for voluntary retirement, dominated newspapers and television channels. Arappor Iyakkam claimed that the above officer resorted to the aforementioned action as he was being pressurised by the top brass to change conditions of the tender to favour a specific company came out in the open and because the IT Secretary seems to have disagreed to the changes and stood for fair tender practices, he seems to have been transferred without any reason to the Handicrafts Department even before his term ended, as per media reports. Hans Raj Verma IAS was given additional charge as ACS, IT Department. The Managing Director of TANFINET was also transferred and a new person called Ravichandran was brought in. The last date for the prebid conference, the opening of the tender etc have from then on been postponed continuously without any valid reason.
They further accused that on April 15, 2020, when the whole state is focused on fighting the pandemic, TANFINET has brought about big changes in the tender in the form of a Corrigendum, the major of which seemed to be with the intention of restricting competition and to favour a few specific companies. The release said, "Corrigendum is generally issued on minor conditional changes or specifications that will pave way for a healthy competitive quality tender. However, the reverse of it seems to have happened."
The changes made included the basic eligibility criteria of the cumulative turnover requirement for the last 3 financial years has been turned to the average annual turnover for the last 3 financial years. This is a major anticompetitive clause as the required turnover has been increased by 300%. This has resulted in a turnover requirement to increase from almost 40% of the tender value to 120% of the tender value.
Also, the cumulative experience in the last 3 years has been changed to experience in each of the last 3 years in Package B, C and D again which will result in eliminating bidders. Arappor Iyakkam Convenor Jayaram Venkatesan said, "Apart from this, there are several gross changes such as demanding average turnover of Rs 405 Crores for Original Equipment Manufacturers. All these clauses are aimed at eliminating System Integrators and designed to choose specific big Optical Fiber Cable Manufacturers."
He accused that when the eligibility criteria of the original tender were approved by 15 Secretaries of the Tamil Nadu Infrastructure Development Board (TNIDB), it is illegal for the TANFINET to have made such a major change without the approval of the TNIDB. Secondly, he questioned the logic and reason to increase the turnover and experience multiple times when they have been vetted and approved by the Secretaries of 15 Departments. He accused it was done to limit competition, for favouritism and to pave way for massive corruption in tenders.
He further stated that these changes seem to have been carried out to eliminate System Integrator companies out of the competition and only allow OFC manufacturers to be made eligible. He added saying, it is reliably learnt that the TANFINET is doing this to favour 2 big specific companies, the names of which has been shared in the complaint to the Chief Minister and the agencies.
He added in disappointment that in a time when the State is fighting a pandemic and the entire focus of all people and Government functionaries are on the pandemic certain top functionaries of the state seem to be wanting to use this opportunity to grossly misuse their power for unjust enrichment of a few by involving themselves in illegally changing the conditions of the Tender. He said it is extremely important that action is taken immediately so that the corruption can be thwarted immediately and the project, when implemented, can bring about great benefits to Tamil Nadu.