Dot Altered Payment Norms To Benefit Marr Suppliers

This is against the DoT's usual practice of sourcing equipment on deferred payment (lease finance). The department of telecommunications changed the terms to meet the shortfall of MARR equipment needed for setting up village public telephone (VPT) systems. This fact has come to light in the Parliamentary standing committee report on Communications tabled in Parliament yesterday.

The crux of the CBI charge against the former telecommunications minister is that the favoured Hyderabad-based ARM and a couple of other companies with orders for the supply of MARR equipment. Repeat orders were placed on these firms without going through the tendering process.

 

In spite of this, the department of telecommunications has fallen short by a whopping 1.21 lakh village public telephones during the eighth plan period (1992-97).

The department of telecommunications had assured the committee earlier this year that the current year's target will be met as sufficient purchase orders have been placed well in advance with reliable vendors for the supply of MARR equipment.

The committee has expressed concern that though the MARR system has not been found to be suitable, yetvillage public telephones are proposed to be provided by expanding the MARR system. It has recommended that an evaluation of the MARR system should be conducted to decide its utility and efficiency.

The committee has asked the department of telecommunications to furnish details about the decision making process that led to the selection of MARR technology in village public telephones.

The secretary, department of telecommunications, has admitted before the committee that there was some lacuna in the planning for village public telephones which led to the shortfall in meeting targets.

The committee, in turn, has said a vital project like the village public telephones was not attended to with the seriousness it deserved and sought an inquiry into the shortfall.

Sukh Ram had sought to place two major orders worth more than Rs 350 crore without going through the tender route just before the elections in March-April this year.

These orders were for 2,495 multi-access rural radio (MARR) systems and for some 1,500 sets of 2 GHz radios used in microwave transmission.

The telecom commission, however, had decided to disregard the former minister's note seeking shelter of the code of conduct guidelines of the election commission.

A similar directive by Sukh Ram trying to place orders for optical fibre cables on 10 companies was ignored by the top brass of the department of telecommunications (DoT) in April.

Sukh Ram wanted the order for 4/36 multi-access rural radio systems to be placed on: ARM and Shyam Telecom (400 each), Telematics, Inter City Cable, Sinclair, Goldstone, Natelco, Technicom and UTL (165 each). The public sector unit, Hindustan Telematics Limited was alloted an order of 100 4/36 multi-access rural radio systems.

The remaining 315 4/36 systems were to have been placed on ICS (75 systems), BINFO, HET, Navnidhi (based at Hyderabad) and ANCO (60 each).

One of these companies, HET was further sought to be given 125 of the 2/15 MARR systems.

Sukh Ram's order, which raised many eyebrows in DoT, was to have been placed just a few months after companies were shortlisted for an order for 3,000 multi-access rural radio systems in early January this year.

The minister justified his `out-of-tender' orders claiming that the tender process would take long and would result in a loss to department of telecommunications.