The Gate 2020 training program, which was running at SGSITS Indore, has been discontinued because of the violation of norms while the tender process for selection of coaching institute for students. The program was funded by World Bank-funded under Technical Education Improvement program, phase three, of the union government.
It was told the institute that expenditure incurred by it on the project would not be reimbursed. And the project was waved, SGSITS had paid Rs25 lakh to Engineer’s Circle Education Private Limited, the firm which had won the contract for coaching the students.
The program was discontinued as per instruction of the MP state project implementation unit (SPIU) of the ministry of human resources and development on October 9.
As per the reports, this suspension befell after SPIU’s three-member probe committee involving deputy director (technical education) Dr. Subodh Pandey, SPIU nodal officer (academic) Dr. Preeti Maheshwari and SPIU nodal officer Dr. Anshuman Sharma found that all requirements were not met while passing tenders for Gate 2020 training program. According to the report of September 19, it was understood that the institute had negotiated with firms that had presented tenders against the rules.
The panel had been set up after Kushal Agarwal, MD of Navigate Institute (a coaching institute) complained about the National Project Implementation Unit of HRD ministry on August 28. Agarwal, who had also presented a tender for the training program, alleged that SPIU norms were violated and tender was allotted to an L2 company (a company with the second-lowest bid).
It further came into notice that SGSITS had floated tender for Gate 2020 training program on March 6 and issued a work order to Engineer’s Circle Education Private Limited on July 25.
The statement included the formation of a committee of three members for the tendering process. Also, the committee finalized four firms for the final round and allotted tender to Engineer’s Circle Education Private Limited. It was added by SGSITS director Rakesh Saxena according to topic guidelines, a conflict of interest had risen, so we had to opt for an L2 firm.
Furthermore, there was no fault on our end and the firm was allotted tender following eligibility criteria. The payment was stopped as a probe by NPIU was pending, added Engineer’s Circle Education Private Limited director Manish Gupta said.
SPIU (MP) director Seema Saxena denied commenting on the issue.