BENGALURU: The Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) is in the middle of another controversy after it allegedly violated the conditions of a tender it called and returned a Kerala-based company Rs 2.57 crore of the Rs 5-crore bank guarantee provided by it to participate in tender process.The company, which had been given the contract for an end-to-end upgrade of the university’s computer network, will now be approached to return the money. Work on the project is yet to begin even five months after a part of the advance was returned.
A Right to Information (RTI) reply, a copy of which is with The New Sunday Express, explicitly states that there is no provision to return an advance to the company without any work being done by them. “There is no provision in the tender document/agreement for payment of mobilisation of advance in the tender for End-to-End computerisation of RGUHS,” the reply has revealed.
A project that is estimated to cost around Rs 51 crore to implement will see the varsity shift to a completely paperless administration. Interestingly, the project was even placed before the state cabinet meeting held in January this year for approval. According to university officials, the company had paid the Rs 5 crore security deposit and after winning the tender, submitted a request asking for 50% of the amount to be returned to it as an advance for mobilising funds. So, Rs 2.57 crore was given as this advance.
RGUHS Vice-Chancellor Dr Sachidanand said the advance had been paid as the university thought that the company would start the work on time. When news of this reached the office of the Principal Secretary of the state’s Medical Education Department, she asked the university to submit a functionality report. Following this, the university has now asked the company to return the advance paid.
“The letter from the government came asking for functionality report only after we paid the advance. Now, the technical committee is looking at it and will submit the report. The process is on to take back the advance paid,” said the Vice-Chancellor.