TTD cancels reverse tendering process in engineering and procurement wings

The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) has decided to revoke the implementation of reverse tendering process in the activities pertaining to its engineering and procurement departments, following the State government’s decision to this effect.

The State government had decided to tweak the modalities in the tender-cum-reverse auctioning process, after ‘certain drawbacks’ were observed in its implementation. It was decided to follow the conventional tender procedure for entrustment of works in all departments and also restore the previous online e-procurement system, thus doing away with the concept of what has been perceived as ‘bargaining twice’.

The TTD, as a quasi government body, has been adopting the reverse tendering process since 2019 in its engineering and procurement wings. However, with the State’s decision to do away with the process, the TTD has also announced reversion to the old system and has communicated the same to all its stakeholders.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader P. Naveen Kumar Reddy has welcomed the decision and hoped that it would augur well for the TTD in the days to come.

The TTD’s decision assumes significance amid the ongoing row over the alleged supply of adulterated ghee for making the ‘Prasadams’. The reverse tendering process is widely perceived to leave the supplier with a wafer thin margin, and even pushing him towards incurring loss at times. In fact, it was the first angle to come under the scanner after the ghee supply controversy erupted, which was also widely debated in the political circles.

“The system was introduced by the erstwhile YSRCP regime with a vested interest of giving away the supply/civil contracts to its men,” Mr. Reddy charged, while appealing to the TTD authorities to cancel the contracts that had not yet been grounded, in order to save money to Lord Venkateswara’s exchequer.

Mr. Reddy also demanded that a state-of-the-art laboratory be established in Tirupati at the earliest to get all the mandatory tests done here to ensure the use of the right ingredients in ‘Srivari Prasadams’.