Anonymous accusations in ONGC rig tender
An anonymous complainant has sent ONGC a letter full of accusations of "bid-rigging" related to a tender to hire seven new workover rigs in Assam.
On August 3 (2024), this report received a letter from someone claiming to be a former ONGC employee, with copies marked to the ONGC board and the oil ministry referring to a workover tender where ONGC received bids on July 19 (2024) after multiple bid deadline extensions. "The process has been compromised by bid-rigging activities involving a syndicate of bidders, which pose a serious threat to the integrity and fairness of the procurement procedure," alleges the letter.
"Despite various clarifications and amendments to the tender documents, it appears the tender process has been manipulated to inflate bid prices." One Ahmedabad-based drilling industry source dismisses the accusations.
"The price bids for the tender aren’t opened yet," he says. "So how does the writer know about the prices submitted?" Another source who works for one of the bidders has the opposite view.
"Yes, it is right that the price bids have not been opened," he says. "But it"s possible the prices have been quoted in the range mentioned in the letter."
When asked how anyone would know what prices have been quoted, he said: "Every bidder has an agent; the information could be leaked through the agent who knows how much the parties have bid." He continues: "Just to let you know, even I have heard rumours of collusive bidding."
He refuses to say which companies participated in the alleged bidding syndicate. The anonymous letter writer further accuses companies of submitting their price bids using personal laptops connected to mobile hotspots.
It claims that despite using separate networks, the bids were transmitted through the same mobile tower. Whoever sent the letter demands that ONGC use the following methods to verify the accusations: time stamp analysis, GPS data verification, IP address analysis, cell tower triangulation, and application log analysis.
Still unclear is whether ONGC is taking the letter seriously and it did not respond to a request for comment.