Toolkit purchases worth Rs 55 cr by shiksha parishad under scanner

Bhartesh Singh Thakur

Advertisement

Chandigarh, April 13

Purchase of 48,025 toolkits for vocational education of students, worth Rs 55.27 crore, by the Haryana School Shiksha Pariyojna Parishad (HSSPP) is under scanner over alleged irregularities. The matter came to light after a petition was filed before the Punjab and Haryana High Court alleging that contracts were awarded without verification of the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) certificates, which was a requirement in the tenders.

Tenders were issued on December 19, 2022, for supplying handholding tool kits for various streams — agriculture, apparel, automotive, beauty & wellness and healthcare. Just a 10-day time was granted to bidders for submitting all documentation. The bids were opened on January 4, 2023, and contracts were awarded on January 23.

Principal Secretary, Higher Education Department, Vijayendra Kumar, who is also holding charge of Administrative Secretary of School Education, has sought a reply from the school education department on a number of issues. In his note, he asked to which scheme the purchase relates and when the toolkit was not part of the vocational education scheme under Samagra Siksha, then how the department could purchase an item for which there was no budget approval by the Project Approval Board (PAB).

He sought details on whether approval for technical specifications and pre-qualification and the tender document was taken from the Administrative Secretary. The GeM (Government e-Marketplace) tenders are allowed only for specific items. He asked if this item was allowed to be purchased on GeM.

As per instructions relating to GeM, only a tender of Rs 1 crore can be allotted at the level of the Administrative Secretary, and for a value Rs 1-5 crore, the tender has to be placed before the next higher authority (minister). Since this tender value was above Rs 5 crore, then it had to be approved by the High Power Purchase Committee (HPPC) of the state government comprising the CM. It is learned that the HPPC was not approached in the toolkit purchase case.

Kumar also sought details on whether the Administrative Secretary’s approval was taken before the issuance of the work order and questioned who approved the payment to vendors as the Head of Department (HoD) has the power of Rs 1 lakh in the normal course and Rs 35 lakh for purchases. Complaints were made on GeM with regard to the mention of samples and specific brands in the tenders. The Administrative Secretary has sought information on how those were disposed of.

A firm, Florid Print & Pack Pvt. Ltd, which had bid for tenders, has alleged in its petition that the ‘original equipment manufacturer authorisation certificate’ from the bidders was specifically sought qua all the items being procured.

certificate used as weapon

The OEM authorisation certificate was in fact used as a weapon by the official respondents in connivance with the bidders to eliminate any kind of healthy competition, as in a span of just 10 days, it was not possible to provide certificates qua the items mentioned.

Firm