The multi-crore liquor hologram project took yet another curious turn with the state government deciding to cancel the tenders and awarding the work to the government security press. What makes the decision interesting is that it came after the excise department completed the entire tender process and opened the financial bids of two companies, Uflex and Colour Process, which remained in the final round of the bid.
While commissioner Samir Sarma wanted the government to take a call on selecting the bidder based on their financial quotations, excise minister K. Parthasaradhi is said to have directed the department to withdraw the tender process. “In all likelihood, the government will award the contract running into hundreds of crores of rupees to government security press,” a senior revenue official said.
The government is seeking to project that both the firms quoted a higher price and that it wanted to save taxpayers’ money by giving the work to the government press at a lesser price. Sources, however, say that the sudden turn of events was the result of a fallout between the powers-that-be and one of the contender firms. “As per the procedure, the government can call the firm that quoted the least price and negotiate with it to reduce further. It decided to withdraw the tenders instead,” said an official.
The tenders were mired in controversy from the beginning. The high level committee headed by Mr Sarma eliminated five bidders on technical grounds and another strong contender Holostik India on charges of “conflict of interest” as Holostik’s partner owned a distillery. Though the document pr-escribed that the “conflict of interest” clause would come into effect only after the tender is awarded, the panel disqualified Holos-tik midway. Holostik moved the High Court alleging foul play and then equally quickly withdrew the case. The department went ahead with the opening of the financial bids even after it was cautioned that the contenders may hike up the price. After going through the whole exercise, it took a sudden decision to scrap the tenders altogether.