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BHOPAL: Madhya Pradesh state economic offences wing (EOW) has expanded the ambit of its probe into the alleged mammoth e-tendering scam by digging up an approximately Rs 10000 crore-worth tenders floated by the state government in the last five years.

Documents are being collected from Madhya Pradesh state economic development corporation (MPSEDC), TCS and Bengaluru based Antrax technologies which operated online tenders, said sources. A city-based IT company hired by MPSEDC is under the scanner.

Initially, Chief Secretary (CS) B P Singh had asked EOW to probe the alleged rip-off based on an interim report submitted by former director of MPSED and senior IAS officer – Manish Rastogi – after cancelling nine tenders invited in the year 2018.

Of those nine tenders, three were floated by public health engineering (PHE) department, two by public works department, one by project implementation unit (PIU), two by water resources department (WRD) and one by Madhya Pradesh State Road Development Corporation (MPSRDC). And, the volume of the nine tenders is around Rs 3000 crore.

“EOW is now looking into all e-tenders floated through MPSEDC from 2013 onwards. Their volume is above Rs 10000 crore,” an officer in the state secretariat told TOI.

Sources, however, say, despite CS’s directive for an FIR into the alleged scam, EOW has only registered a preliminary enquiry (PE) into the matter and is moving in a snail’s pace.

Investigators have issued notices to PWD, MPRDC, PHE, WRD department for submission of requisite documents. Some officers are also being summoned and questioned to identify accountable persons, said sources. Tender opening authorities (TOAs) in these departments are under scanner, they say.

“Those involved have breached software security system to check rates quoted by companies in the fray and subsequently, modify the rate of the company of their choice to the lowest. Probe is on to find the accountable officers,” said an officer privy of the information.

Officers who gave/shared access controls of the online system to unauthorised people won’t be spared as well. They would be charged under Prevention of Corruption Act, the Information Technology Act and Indian Penal Code , said the officer.

“Engineers who dealt with the e-tendering system and were responsible for its technical maintenance/service who managed the database server and application server of e-tendering system, have created loopholes in the software so as to award contract to companies of their choice,” he said. Companies that were likely to be benefited by the breach would be next in line.

Off late, this issue has also become a political agenda in the poll-bound state. The leader of opposition in the state assembly, Ajay Singh, had recently charged that loopholes were deliberately left in the e-tendering system to allow tampering in tenders to take place. He had said that undermining of suggestions received from expert panel to strengthen the ex-tendering procedure clearly betrayed that sanctity of e-tendering procedure was never a priority of the state government.

Singh said the massive e-tendering scam unfolding in Madhya Pradesh has come as a big setback for Prime Minister Narendra Modi ’s Digital India Campaign and people’s trust over e-system of governance has been shattered.

He had also alleged that measures suggested by a panel to check tampering of tenders were not heeded to and glaring gaps in the system were left unbridged to allow manipulations.

