PSPCL should have acted swiftly
The award of the IT tender to Spanco was a Himalayan blunder since the entire project has now derailed and collapsed

With reference to HT stories on the Spanco controversy, the award of Rs 350-crore tender to the IT (information technology) firm was a Himalayan blunder since the entire IT project has collapsed. While HS Brar, former chairman, Punjab State Electricity Board, has given the justification of “saving money”, the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) must have incurred losses (due to wrong billing), which could be as high as Rs 100 crore. The lesson from this episode is that in assessing any tender, the price should not be the sole criterion. Track record and credentials are critical. When a project collapses due to incompetence and corruption, the contract must be terminated without giving any further chance to the defaulter. The PSPCL has now served a notice on Spanco, only under media and public pressure.

Padamjit Singh, (ex-officer, PSEB), Patiala

II

While the computerisation of consumer billing in Punjab is a proven flop show, it is only after the expose by HT that the PSPCL has issued the termination notice to Spanco. While Spanco qualified for the tender on the basis of its tie-up with Accenture, when the latter walked out in December 2011/ January 2012, it should have attracted automatic disqualification and scrapping of the tender. The PSPCL wanted to favour Spanco and hence continued with the contract. The PSPCL must answer why the termination notice was not issued in the first instance.

SS Rajpal, Bathinda

III

Had HT not exposed the Spanco scam, it would have continued unmitigated, causing loss of crores to the PSPCL and misery to consumers due to wrong billing, as a result of failure of the SAP (Systematic Applications Procedure) system, which Spanco didn’t install successfully. Bribery and corruption at various levels played a major role during the implementation of the project, causing it to collapse. The Punjab chief minister should step in and call for a probe by the CBI.
VK Gupta, Chandigarh