Rs. 270 Crores IT Equipment Purchased For Secretariat Without Tenders By KCR’S BRS Govt: V & E

Hyderabad, March 27 (Maxim News): The Vigilance and Enforcement have prima facie found that the rules were violated in purchasing IT equipment required for the state secretariat during the KCR’s BRS government regime. It has been confirmed that the works undertaken for Rs. 270 crores were tied up only on nomination.

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The investigation concluded that although G.O. No. 94 clarified that tenders must be called for works undertaken at a cost of more than Rs. 5 lakh, that provision was not followed. It has been found that the works have been undertaken against the rules of the Central Vigilance Commission, which makes it clear that global tenders should be called.  

The Director General of Vigilance and Enforcement Department, Rajeev Ratan has submitted a preliminary report to Chief Secretary Shanti Kumari.  On the other hand, they are inquiring whether there were any irregularities in the quality of work undertaken, the prices spent for the purchase of equipment, etc. A final report will be submitted after getting clarity on these.

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When the vigilance department asked the top officials of the IT department to explain why they had to do the work on the nomination, it was reported that they did not go to the tenders because they were undertaking the work on a war-like basis.  The old secretariat was demolished in July 2020.  The foundation stone of the new building was laid in January 2021.  On May 1, 2023, the new secretariat started operations.  This means that after demolishing the old secretariat, it took almost three years for the new one to become available.

However, vigilance suspects that there is a flaw in the IT department’s claim that the work was given on nomination due to lack of time.  Even if the IT procurement in the new secretariat is wrong, the IT department is analyzing the reasons behind not recognizing the matter earlier.

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However, on December 1, 2022, quotations for equipment were received from seven registered companies.  After that, Vigilance inquired about handing over work to a company on nominations without going to tenders as there was no time.  In this regard, a complaint has already been sent to the Enforcement

The IT Department has been entrusted with setting up a Secretariat Campus Area Network (SCAN) along with computers and other IT equipment for all the departments in the new Secretariat.  In this regard, in the past, when the proposals were prepared with about Rs. 180 crores, there were criticisms.  As such, the IT procurement work was completed during the inauguration of the Secretariat at an additional cost of 50 percent.  Allegations of spending more than the market prices in the purchase of computers and other works have also surfaced in this order. It is alleged that about 3 lakh was spent on equipment worth Rs. 1 lakh.  The vigilance, which has collected details of the money spent on the purchase of the equipment, is inquiring as to how much it would cost in the open market.  Generally, the work related to the purchase of IT equipment in government departments is done under the Telangana State Technical Services (TSTS).  The Secretariat will provide a final report with comprehensive details after inquiring why it happened differently.  (Maxim News)

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