Aadhaar contracts issued without tender: RTI

Mumbai-based activist obtains information from UIDAI

Contracts for Aadhaar card project undertaken by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) were given without proper tendering process by the then Congress-led UPA government at the Centre, a reply obtained under the Right to Information Act (RTI) has revealed.

Mumbai-based RTI activist Anil Galgali has obtained the information from the UIDAI that was once headed by Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani.

UIDAI Public Information Officer S S Bisht informed Galgali that for Aadhaar card, work has not been issued any kind of tender.

“A total of 25 companies have been awarded different responsibilities. The empanelment of agencies is being done under empanelment process guidelines contained in RFE (Request for Empanelment) dated 19th May 2014,” he said.

Another UIDAI Public Information Officer and Deputy Director R Harish informed Galgali that Rs 13,663.22 crore  was the approved outlay for UIDAI project and Rs 6,562.88 crore amount incurred up to date May 31, 2015, since inception.

PM requested
Galgali has requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to personally look into the issue to bring in more transparency and get the previous contracts reviewed and investigated so that all questions are settled.

“This is very unfair where the project relates with the sensitive data of 125 crore Indians  of the country and no tendering process was done,” said Galgali in a press statement on Saturday.

8 contracts awarded
The RTI query has revealed that a total of eight contracts was awarded to Wipro and HCL, two contracts to Tata Consultancy, 14 contracts to Mac Associates, HP (India) Sales Private Ltd, National Informatics Centre, Sagem Morpho Securities, Satyam Computer Services, L1 Identity Solutions, Totem International, Linkwel Telesystem, Sai Infosystem India, Geodesic, ID Solutions, NISG, SQTC and Telsima Communication.

One contract each was awarded to Aircel, Bharati Airtel, BSNL, Railtel Corporation of India Limited, Reliance Communications and Tata Communications.