UIDAI gave favour of Rs 4.92 crore to Wipro

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which manages Aadhaar, granted undue favour to IT services major Wipro in a maintenance contract to the tune of Rs 4.92 crore, a Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report on Tuesday said.

“Unique Identification Authority of India in contravention of the provisions of the contract extended undue favour to the vendor (Wipro Limited) and incurred an avoidable expenditure of Rs 4.92 crore on annual maintenance contract of the equipment for a period covered under warranty/free maintenance,” the CAG said in a report tabled in Parliament.

It said the UIDAI agreed in March 2013 with the vendor for annual maintenance contract (AMC) of these equipment at a total cost of Rs 4.92 crore for the period from February 2013 to January 2014 and an agreement was signed between UIDAI and Wipro at later date on June 1, 2013.

“Thus deviation from the original contract terms and entering into a fresh AMC retrospectively by UIDAI resulted in avoidable expenditure of Rs 4.92 crore on AMC of the equipment for a period which was to be covered under warranty or free maintenance,” the report said.

According to the ‘General Conditions of Contract’ the vendor was responsible for erection and installation of the goods and services at the destination sites and for making them fully operational, subject to an acceptance test (AT) based on the prescribed norms, it said.

The Unique Identification Authority of India did not route its advertisements through the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity in accordance with the advertisement policy of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. This led to loss of Rs 1.41 crore as the eligible discount was not availed.

Wipro said it maintains the highest standards of corporate governance and transparency. “We disagree with the findings of the report that UIDAI extended undue favor to Wipro. We draw attention to the response provided by UIDAI in the CAG report that the acceptance of goods was given by the competent authority in UIDAI after the commissioning of the equipment. The annual maintenance contract was signed post the expiry of the warranty period.”