Gujarat firm in soup over tender fraud

New Delhi: The Central Medical Service Society (CMSS), an autonomous society under the ministry of health and family welfare, lodged a police complaint against a private manufacturing company in Baroda for submitting forged documents to obtain a tender worth around Rs 75.34 crore.

According to an official, the CMSS had invited a tender for the supply of some medicines. To get it, Centurion Laboratories Pvt. Ltd had participated in the tender and submitted bids along with the required documents.

Accordingly, the CMSS had forwarded copies of the aforesaid documents to the commissioner of Food & Drugs Control Administration (FDCA), Gujarat, on October 12, 2017, asking him to confirm the authenticity of these documents.

In response, the commissioner said the documents were not issued by their office. The certificate of the pharmaceutical products and the capacity and quality certificate were not issued either.

He stated that the scanned documents did not have any forwarding letter or outward reference number. Hence, his office was not able to verify the same.

It was evident that the firm had submitted copies of documents not issued by FDCA, Gujarat.

It was apparent that the documents, submitted by the firm, were not genuine. Those were made with the motive to obtain the tender/contract.

Therefore, the representative of M/s Centurion Laboratories was called to the CMSS office on October 24, 2017 along with all the original documents and the forwarding letter with outward reference number. The value of the tender was approximately Rs 7.34 crore.

A case has been registered against the company and investigation of the case is going on, said a Delhi police official.

“We are being framed by the MNCs that participate and hold top positions in the tender inviting agency,” said a spokesperson of  M/s Centurion Laboratories Pvt Ltd.