Editorial- November 2015

The telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad magnifies puny little app launches of BSNL as if the company were a flaming torch of innovation and achievement. The reality is terrible. And politically, his favorite one-liner is that if the product is good, then only it will sell. Well said, but then he must judge the company under his watch on the basis of this datum. In this issue we bring to you with extreme accuracy, precise facts that expose BSNL’s tender practices as being “unacceptable in law.”

Yes, BSNL is placing orders as the minister always says in his media broadcasts, but how! By putting into practice synchronized and collusive conditions to benefit chosen vendors, to indulge in unjustified payouts all at the cost of depleting the finances of a loss making PSU and in the case of LWE contract even tax revenues deposited in the USO Fund.

The pet themes of the Modi government for the technology sector, Digital India, Quality of Service are being smashed to pieces by the goings-on in BSNL. Officials of DoT & BSNL chose an outdated 2G technology for the LWE contract, a Rs 3,066 crore network of 1,836 towers. This technology does not support data communication, has a restrictive channel capacity, not seen anywhere else in the country. All, because this is the technology which Vihaan could supply. The project’s quality assurance team adopted inferior standards and the casualness with which handover specifications have been treated will ensure that call drops are an embedded feature of this network that is being deployed in the areas affected by left wing extremism.

The guarantee for timely completion of such government projects is usually assured through a corresponding financial liability to be borne by private contractors. This is called Liquidated Damages. This has been done away by BSNL through a unique rollout approach. Predictably, all the deadlines have gone haywire. BSNL has not activated the “fall clause” and has thus chosen not to take advantage of favorable market prices of solar power goods, major components in the project. Again, an instance of loss for the government.

Similarly for other procurements, like the web filters and anti-scam purchase and the manner in which a little known company Vayam Technology was selected. For Broadband Modem procurement, the vendor, Teracom was paid 77 per cent more. All purchases, whether big or small are corrupted, not a crevice is spared.