The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has decided to investigate charges of irregularities against BSNL’s Rs 360 billion tender for 93 million GSM lines. The move follows the submission of a dissent note by J.S. Deepak, the government nominee on the BSNL board and a joint secretary in DoT. The note demanded that the 93 million line capacity be reduced to half. It also stated that the post-tender negotiations the operator was holding with the lowest bidder, Ericsson, violated the CVC guidelines. BSNL claims to have entered into these negotiations to get an additional 20-25 per cent price reduction by the vendor. Such a reduction would enable the operator to save up to $1 billion.
