UNDER THE SCANNER
Government orders inquiry into civic corporation’s IT project
Mumbai: The government has ordered an inquiry into the introduction of SAP in the BMC. The probe was announced by Rajesh Tope, minister of state for urban development, in the legislative council in response to a query by Madhu Chavan of the BJP.
Chavan alleged gross irregularities in the implementation of SAP by the civic body saying excess payments had been made for the project and the implementation was tardy. The consultants, he added, did not recommend some of the modules but the BMC administration went ahead with the project.
Replying to the question, Tope said an inquiry would be conducted into the allegations levelled by Chavan. It would be headed by a professor from IIT Powai.
Civic circles welcomed the probe and hoped it would unearth the manner in which a former official “went about executing the project at a huge cost’’ to the BMC. The corporation is implementing SAP to ensure a unified IT system for the entire organisation.
“Given the large IT infrastructure requirements of SAP, the BMC’s data centre required upgradation of its IT infrastructure. With a view to cater to emergencies, it was decided to have an equally powerful disaster (data) recovery site, which would serve as a mirror of the data centre and ensure continuity of e-governance in case of breakdowns,’’ a senior official said.
The implementation of the data centre was done in two phases and TCS was awarded the contract for both. Even though TCS successfully implemented the two levels, “vested interests’’ sought to keep it out of the third phase, said Ashish Shelar, corporator. For over a year, no decision was taken on the third phase. Shelar said computers and servers worth Rs 150 crore now have to be procured through a tender.
Even as the process was on, a senior civic official issued a letter asking the companies participating in the tender to give an assurance that the rates quoted by them for the hardware were lower than the ones charged by them elsewhere over the past year. Shelar said this move was to ensure that the tender was awarded to a “specific company’’.