Madhya Pradesh: e-tenders are not foolproof     

Two IAS officers in Madhya Pradesh have been in the news of late, one for exposing a e-tendering scam that threatens to snowball into a major scandal; and his wife, also an IAS officer, for having written a scathing opinion piece questioning the relationship between the political leadership and the bureaucracy.

Manish Rastogi, an IAS officer of the 1994 batch, exposed irregularities and tampering in e-tenders. While bureaucratic circles speculated at the enormity of the scam, Rastogi, a principal secretary, was divested of the charge of Science & Technology after Madhya Pradesh Agency for Promotion of Information Technology (MAP-IT) flagged irregularities in tenders issued.

Investigators are said to have zeroed in on some IP addresses in Mumbai, the alleged epicentre of the tampering. Alarm bells had gone off after a Mumbai based infrastructure company complained to the PMO, say some bureaucrats, while others credit a group of bureaucrats led by Rastogi to have unearthed the scandal.

Another IAS officer, who was looking into the case, has proceeded gone on leave and the Chief Secretary, who is on extension due to impending elections, has, handed it to the Economic Offences Wing. All tenders issued since 2014 are likely to be scrutinised, say official sources.

The chief minister’s confidante and, to some, his hatchet man Narottam Mishra, however, denies the existence of any scam. An alert government, he claims, had actually found out the irregularities and averted the scam. Three projects, two in Raigarh and one in Satna worth ₹1000 Crore, he admits, are being investigated though.

The leader of the opposition in the state, Ajay Singh, has written to the PM seeking a CBI inquiry and accused the state government of having mishandled the investigation. Any delay, he suggested, could lead to destruction of or tampering with the evidence.

In the meanwhile, Deepali Rastogi, also an IAS officer of the 1994 batch and wife of Manish Rastogi, wrote an outspoken opinion piece in a newspaper and questioned the role of IAS officers.

“Definition of a good IAS officer has changed. A good officer is one who works according to the wishes of the leader,” she wrote and went on to add, “Officers should make their plans according to the ‘word’ of the leader.’ A good IAS officer is one who does not have his or her own opinion. If he has one, he should keep it to himself. In the last few years, the difference between bureaucracy and politics, right and wrong, truth and lies, has faded.”

She had earlier irked the Government by attributing the Prime Minister’s ‘open defecation free campaign’ to a ‘colonial mentality’ that aped the West. She received a mixed response from her own fraternity with some officers supporting her freedom to voice her opinion while others felt she should have expressed her reservations within the bureaucracy instead of placing them in the public domain.