The Karnataka Congress on Saturday claimed there were irregularities and kickbacks in tenders to procure equipment for the Government Tool Room & Training Center (GTTC).
Skill Development Minister C N Ashwath Narayan rubbished the claims.
Congress leaders V S Ugrappa and H M Revanna released documents and claimed that the government had awarded bids worth Rs 61.52 crore through eight tenders whereas the market value of the equipment was Rs 27.15 crore. “The kickback involved is Rs 34.37 crore,” Ugrappa said. He also accused Narayan of nepotism in choosing the bidders.
“Most of the bids have gone to the same company,” Ugrappa claimed and added that no pre-bid meetings were held as required under the rules. “Bids were awarded to companies that are not manufacturers.”
Ugrappa was referring to the GTTC in Rajajinagar. “This is just a sample. “Such loot has taken place in other departments over the last two years,” he said.
Responding to this, Narayan said everything was done transparently and slammed the Congress for “building a tower based on lies”.
In a statement, Narayan said: “In the preceding two years, over 50% of machinery was procured from the state-run HMT. Therefore, the question of favouring a particular firm does not arise. The evaluation of the tenders are done by an expert committee consisting of senior research scientists from Aeronautical Development Agency, MSME Ministry, the Indian Machine Tool Manufacturers Association and KASSIA.”
Narayan also pointed out that the Congress had “mischievously” compared the prices of machines used for training purposes with those meant for precision manufacturing. “Pre-bid representations were received, meetings held and only Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) or their authorised dealers were awarded purchase orders for supply of machines,” he said.