With two out of five companies empanelled by the Maharashtra government as service providers for the Optical Marks Recognition (OMR)-based examination management system embroiled in controversy while conducting recruitment exams, the government is now forced to turn to the company whose earlier bid was rejected.
After the fiasco of the recruitment exams for Maharashtra Housing Area Development Authority (MHADA) in which officials working with the GA Software Technologies Private Ltd., were arrested for trying to leak question papers, State Housing Minister Jitendra Awhad has announced that the exam will now be conducted by the MHADA and it will take help from Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS).
The tech giant was one of the bidders when the State’s Information and Technology Department floated a request for proposal in August 2020, show the documents accessed by The Hindu through an application under Right to Information (RTI) Act.
A total of 18 companies participated in the process of which initially four were empanelled, including the company now accused of trying to leak the papers. However, TCS did not make it to the final list.
A fifth company called Nysa Communication Pvt Ltd was added later after it approached the Bombay High Court. But Nysa too landed in controversy after Health Department’s grade C and D recruitment examinations, assigned to it, had to be postponed a day before the scheduled date.
“MHADA will conduct the exam. We will take help from TCS. We want a company which has an experience of conducting such exams without controversial past,” Mr. Ahwad told The Hindu.
Selection process
Questions are also being raised over the selection criterion applied by the IT department while empanelling companies which could not be satisfied by an industry leader such as TCS, but achieved by the other five.
Sources within the government pointed out that despite running a comprehensive tender process seeking applications from companies to conduct exams, two out of five have landed the State government in embarrassing situation.
“There needs to be a thorough review on what basis these companies were empanelled and whether they fulfilled the necessary criterion,” a government official said.
As per the government resolution, only empanelled companies can be taken on board for conducting recruitment examinations for which these companies are allowed to charge ₹210.04 from each candidate.
