MP E-tender Scam: CERT Seizes 11 Hard Disks, Likely to Submit Report Within a Month

Bhopal: Months before the Madhya Pradesh assembly elections, the state government had sniffed a scam of Rs 3,000 crore in online tendering of government projects, and had urged the state Economic Offence Wing (EOW) to investigate the case.

Sensing complexity of the scam, EOW had sought help from Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) in September 2018 because EOW did not have the technical expertise in decoding the data.

CERT was constituted as the nodal agency in 2004 to strengthen security-related defence of the Indian internet domain. It falls under the Ministry of Electronics and IT.

Three months after joining EOW in the investigation, a team of CERT, comprising five scientists including CERT’s Special Director Om Veer Singh, have quietly collected 11 hard disks from Madhya Pradesh State Electronic Development Corporation (MPSEDC) office, Bhopal, between December 4 to 7, 2018, pertaining to the alleged multi-crore e-tender scam. V Madhukumar, director of EOW, has now confirmed the same.

When the political parties and media houses were anxiously awaiting the poll results, and were busy with the exit polls, the EOW reportedly kept the CERT team movements secret in Bhopal. The poll results were declared on December 11.

Since the Congress was very critical of the e-tender scam during its poll campaigning, and made it a political issue to counter the BJP government, a day after the formation of Congress government, the police reportedly informed Chief Minister Kamal Nath regarding the visit by the CERT team.

 E-tender scam relates to the alleged hacking of e-procurement portal hosted by the MPSEDC and two private companies to see e-tender before the bids were opened – to lower the bids to favour certain companies. At present, EOW is investigating nine e-tenders pertaining to three various departments, all of which were cancelled by the state government, soon after the matter came to light.

The CERT is expected to sift through the data on the hard disks to find out the specific computer, its IP Address and the time and place of the changes made in the tenders. It is expected to submit a report within a month.

Once the report is handed, the EOW which has been investigating the case since last six months will register take follow up action based on the findings of hard disk, IP address and location, said a senior government official requesting anonymity.

Newsclick had earlier reported that the opposition had alleged former Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s involvement in the scam.

Congress Party President Rahul Gandhi had promised to probe e-tender scam during the poll campaign repeatedly, if voted to power. He had said “Congress won’t let those people flee from India who were involved in the e-tendering scam like Vijay Mallya.”

Earlier, Congress leader and then leader of opposition Rahul Singh had claimed e-tender scam is bigger than Vyapam. The Congress had demanded that all the e-tenders floated by MPSEDC since its inception in 2013 should be examined.

In January 1, 2013, the MPSEDC and its partner firm TCS entered an agreement with Bangalore-based Antares Systems for customisation, integration, data migration, implementation and maintenance of e-procurement and tendering portals of the state government.

According to an estimate, MPSEDC, TCS and Antares have processed tenders worth over Rs three lakh crores since 2013 – when the three had formed an agreement.