The Chief Vigilance Commission (CVC) has objected to the procedure followed by BSNL in procuring equipment as part of its 93 million GSM lines tender. Financial Express reports that the CVC has asked BSNL to submit all documents related to the tender immediately.

The Financial Express reports that the government nominee on the BSNL board, J S Deepak who is also joint secretary in DoT had pointed out that the tender can be halved and post tender negotiations with Ericsson not be held as it violates CVC guidelines.

According to the CVC, post tender negotiations with Ericsson can be a potential source of corruption. As per CVC guidelines such post tender negotiations can be conducted only in exceptional cases such as when the supplier has a proprietary item or when a cartel formation is suspected.

According to MR Deepak, the CVC exemptions did not apply in Ericsson’s case. He said that BSNL’s market share and declining revenues did not justify a tender of this magnitude. He asked for halving of the tender. He has suggested that BSNL can go in for a short tender of a lower amount and to meet any contingency, the company could approach the earlier vendors.

As per the CVC guidelines, even in case of post tender negotiations under exemption cases, the negotiations should be completed within 15 days whereas in this case the negotiations have lasted over more than couple of months.