The Bharatiya Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) said it would “look into” The Quint's story on an alleged Rs 2000-crore scam involving its officials, senior army officers, and some executives of the Indian arm of the American multinational, Cisco.
Documents in the The Quint’s possession reveal that BSNL’s tender or request for proposal (RFP) was manipulated in a way that favoured Cisco, much in the same way as was done in the recent helicopter scam involving AgustaWestland, wherein technical parameters were changed to ensure only one OEM (original equipment manufacturer) qualifies.
Internal Investigation Launched by Cisco, BSNL
While Cisco and BSNL failed to respond to The Quint’s questions, Anupam Srivastava, Chairman and Managing Director of BSNL, has said that the allegations will be looked into.
Prima facie there is no substance to the allegations, but since the reports have come, we will look into the matter once again. In the past also, these things have come up before I joined, and a proper reply on the subject has been given.Anupam Shrivastava, BSNL CMD
Whereas Cisco maintained that it does not comment on customer relationships or internal processes, even as it issued a statement that read:
Cisco strives to maintain high standards of ethics and integrity across the company and around the world. These values are at the forefront of the way we do business every day. We expect our employees and partners to maintain the highest levels of ethical and responsible business practices at all times and we move quickly to investigate any issues or concerns.
PMO, CVC, DoT Aware of the Scam
Trouble could be brewing for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government’s anti-corruption crusade in the form of a Rs 2,000-crore scam involving the purchase of IP-MPLS equipment for the Network for Spectrum (NFS) project from the American multinational Cisco via the public sector Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL).
Earlier, The Quint had also pointed out that much of the money for two huge purchase orders (POs) was diverted to a “slush fund” that was appropriated by senior executives of the two companies – Cisco and BSNL.
Cisco higher-ups based in the US and India have begun an internal investigation into the matter. The Prime Minister’s Office, the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) are also aware of the scam.
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