Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Saturday, May 13, 2006
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Saturday, May 13, 2006 |
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Telecommunications Info-Tech - Regulatory Bodies & Rulings CAG raps BSNL for WLL capacity under-utilisation Our Bureau
"Absence of any provision in the purchase orders for levy of penalty on suppliers for delays in installation, acceptance, testing and commissioning resulted in the blocking of capital of Rs 134.97 crore," it said.
New Delhi , May 12 The Comptroller and Auditor-General of India (CAG) has pulled up State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) for under-utilisation of capacity of its wireless-in-local loop (WLL) systems on account of deficiencies in planning, procurement, network coverage and poor service quality. "The capacity utilisation of WLL systems was 60.53 per cent against the total equipped capacity of 26.89 lakh lines as of March 2005... Expansion of the capacity during 2002-03 to 2004-05 in seven circles despite under-utilisation of the existing capacity, led to injudicious expenditure of Rs 108.64 crore," said CAG's audit report tabled in Parliament today. The CAG report said BSNL procured WLL systems based on "obsolete technologies" valued at Rs 1,479.87 crore during October 2000 to March 2005 though the latest WLL CDMA 2000-1X technology was available since October 2000. "Despite instructions, 13 circles and the two metro districts did not prepare separate costing records for WLL telephone services. The records of seven circles showed a total loss of Rs 122.15 crore. Ten circles, which prepared revenue projections for the WLL telephone service, failed to realise the projected revenues of Rs 139.31 crore during the last five years up to 2004-05," it said. The procurement of 40,660 fixed wireless terminals (FWTs), 340,380 handheld wireless terminals, 8,975 fixed remote stations and 8,200 Wall Sets for 17 circles and two Metro districts without keeping in view the customers' preference and demand, led to idle investment of Rs 229 crore, the CAG said. It further pointed out that the corporate office delayed finalisation of rates of FWTs which resulted in excess payment of Rs 5.59 crore to ARM Ltd and United Telecom Ltd and added that failure to obtain the Performance Bank Guarantees (PBGs) and premature release of PBGs resulted in undue financial benefits of Rs 26.40 crore to suppliers. "Absence of any provision in the purchase orders for levy of penalty on suppliers for delays in installation, acceptance, testing and commissioning resulted in the blocking of capital of Rs 134.97 crore," it said. On the issue of human resources management, the CAG noted that BSNL had incurred an expenditure of Rs 16.82 crore on idle manpower in the telecom stores organisation during the years 2000-01 to 2004-05. "Group A Officers who were on deemed deputation from the Department of Telecom had not been absorbed even after five years of formation of the company," it said and added that the company could not implement any Voluntary Retirement Scheme to downsize manpower till November 2005.
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