Bhopal, Apr 11 (KNN) The reports of alleged irregularities in e-tending of contracts worth Rs 3,000 crore came to light.

The alleged e-tendering scam involved manipulation of the e-procurement portal to change the bid price to ensure that tenders were awarded to select companies.

KNN India had time and again highlighted such stories on how some departments misuse e-tendering platform to benefit few selected companies.

Earlier talking to KNN India a MSME entrepreneur had told KNN India that e-tendering process has its own discrepancies and problems.

While earlier the tender document had all the information required to file the tender, now with it going online, there are times when not all information is visible on portal easily, because of which many bids render disqualified, he had said.

Citing one of the cases in which he faced similar problem, the entrepreneur said that his firm applied for a tender following which the department issued a corrigendum about which he was not given any information, because of which his request wasn’t entertained.

Listing another concern, he said that despite the tendering process becoming digital, there is no standard program on which it runs.

Different versions of Java are required to access the tender page of different departments whereas a computer can host only one form of Java at once.

“This either means that we need different computers for different sites or each time we need to install and reinstall another version, and not every vendor is well educated to do so”.

He suggested that the government must form a high level body to look into these loopholes in order to ensure actual ease of doing business for the sector.

The Economic Offenses Wing (EOW) of Madhya Pradesh Police has filed an FIR against directors and marketing representatives of five companies, and unknown employees of government departments, bureaucrats and politicians.

According to media reports, EOW officials stated that the scam relates to how some firms allegedly illegally managed to hack the e-procurement portal hosted by the Madhya Pradesh State Electronic Development Corporation (MPSEDC) to see the e-tenders before the bid was to be opened and then make changes in their bids so that the favored company illegally becomes the lowest bidder and gets the contract.

The investigation revealed that the procurement portal was tampered in nine tendering process to provide benefits to five private companies which were based out of Hyderabad, Mumbai, Baroda and Bhopal.