Mumbai: The State government is yet to take action against officials of Haffkine Biopharmaceutical Corporation Ltd. for issuing and approving tenders worth ₹150 crore, despite a Supreme Court order on July 27 to float fresh tenders as the existing ones were found to be in violation of Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) guidelines.
In its order dated July 27, the apex court ordered fresh tenders be floated for the supply of bulk drugs, including Monovalent Bulk of Poliomyelitis Type 1 (Oral) Sabin Strain and Monovalent Bulk of Poliomyelitis Type 3 (Oral) Sabin Strain used by Haffkine, a State government undertaking, to prepare oral polio vaccine.
Complaints demanding an inquiry against errant Haffkine officials, forwarded by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), too have not been acted upon by the Maharashtra government.
The complaint to the PMO was made by Pune-based social activist Chandrakant Kadam, who told The Hindu on Sunday that several delegations have been made to State Minister for Food, Civil Supplies, Consumer Protection, Food & Drugs Administration Girish Bapat seeking his intervention and inquiry against top officials, but to no avail.
Mr. Kadam, who referred to documents that are part of the SC order, said, “The country’s top court has found irregularities in the tendering process. Shouldn’t there be an inquiry into irregularities that could profit a particular company? Shouldn’t it be checked if any [Haffkine] official has received kickbacks?”
Mr Bapat could not be reached despite several attempts, while a call to his Officer on Special Duty (OSD) yielded no response, despite reminders. Calls to Sanjay Deshmukh, secretary, Medical Education & Drug department went without any response.
On January 20, 2016, Haffkine issued a tender for the supply of bulk drugs, including those mentioned. The process involved a techno-commercial bid and a price bid. The techno-commercial bid was to be opened on February 10, .2016 at 4.30 p.m., and the date for opening the price bid was to be fixed thereafter.
Two firms, Nirlac and Bionet Asia, bid for the tender. However, the former alleged the tender, which was awarded to the latter, was not opened in their presence, and approached the Bombay High Court. When the court ruled in Nirlac’s favour, Haffkine and Bionet Asia approached the SC against the high court verdict.
In its order, the SC observed that Haffkine had violated CVC guidelines by not opening the bid in presence of all bidders or their representatives. “In this view of the matter, we are clearly of the opinion that the entire tender opening process is vitiated since the CVC guidelines have not been followed. We may also add that opening of the tender without showing the documents is also meaningless. When a technical bid is opened, it is the right of the rival bidders to see whether the documents attached by a bidder meet the technical requirements or not. This can only be done if the documents attached to the bid are shown to the other side. According to us, the violation of CVC guidelines is itself sufficient to vitiate the entire tender process.”
