TII Board Member Biswajit Mohanty ON Monday claimed recent RTI documents have revealed that concession agreements were signed with private developers without going through open bidding process.
Comparing the scam with recent 2G scam, Mr Mohanty said that since nobody actually knows how much revenue the government would have earned as its share as no chance was given to competitors to bid with offers of revenue sharing from the port operations.
In a letter to chief minister, Naveen Patnaik, Mr Mohanty has demanded for a CBI enquiry into the manner in which three port sites were handed over to private companies for development without inviting open competitive bids.
"I find a woeful and complete lack of transparency in the process followed by the Commerce and Transport Department in selection of bidders for development of ports by the private sector. No eligibility criteria as to minimum turnover, financial worth, years of business experience in port development has been announced by government or mentioned in the Port Policy", the letter said. Read the full report here.
Source: Nageshwar Patnaik, ET Bureau, Economic Times, Bhubaneswar.
