Sidco backs out from retender

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Following the controversy over Kerala Small Industries Development Corporation Ltd (Sidco) again proposing to participate in the retender for digitisation and creation of archives for Kerala University, Sidco took a U-turn on Thursday by not turning-up at the finalisation of selection of firms.It was reported in these columns on January 18 that Sidco too proposed to participate in the tender though it was terminated from the project earlier.The termination letter said that Sidco had violated the agreement, and found that Sidco had not commenced the work even after one month of signing the MoU. Around 16 companies came forward for the Rs 20-crore project at the retendering process following the controversy.After opening the tenders on Thursday, it was found that only nine have satisfied the eligibility criteria in the assessment of the administrative authority. C-dit and Stockhold Operations were disqualified from the bid.Others including Sidco did not participate. During the first phase of the project, Sidco was selected and completed digitisation of 75,000 marksheets of Kerala University examinations. For the second phase, Sidco was again selected for a work of Rs 3 crore which was terminated by the university for violating the agreement.Kerala University Vice- Chancellor A Jayakrishnan told ‘Express’ that the company or organisation for digitisation would be selected only after technical and financial evaluation. The technical evaluation will be conducted by persons outside the university who are experts in this field.The finalisation will be made only after assessing the technical competence of thefirm. To ensure transparency at all levels, evaluation will be made by an expert committee after evaluating the documents for technical and financial strength of the firm, he said.Those qualified for digitisation are ITI Ltd, Keonics, Keltron IT Business Group, CMC Ltd, Hewlett- Packard India Sale (P) Ltd. Sify Technologies Ltd, Manipal Technologies Ltd. Cameo Corporate Services Ltd and Baehal Software Ltd. The technical evaluation will be held on January 23 and the financial bid will be opened on January 24.