Swiss challenge mode caught in new row

Hyderabad: The proposed Swiss Challenge mode for the selection of the Amaravati Development Partner (ADP) has stirred new controversy. Officials had said that the central government’s approval would be necessary for the agreement between the Singapore consortium and the Capital City Development and Management Company (CCDMC) on the Swiss challenge method.

In the past, the central government had permitted the AP government to sign MoUs on a government-to-government basis. Accordingly, the AP and Singapore governments had signed an MoU for the Amaravati development partner. But now, instead of governments, companies are reaching an agreement on the Amaravati development partner. In the MoU with the Singapore government, the AP government categorically said that the companies proposed by the Singapore government for the Amaravati development partner should be 100 per cent Singapore government-owned companies.

Senior IAS officers said that the agreement between the Singapore Consor-tium of companies and AP government’s CCDMC needed the central government’s clearance. A senior official in the Municipal Administration department said that the central government had agreed to sign this MoU between the two governments of AP and Singapore: A fresh proposal from the AP government to reach an agreement between the two companies would require the central government’s permission.

The officials said that only after getting clearance from the centre could the state government call for competitive bidding on the Swiss Challenge mode at the global level. But the AP government chief secretary S.P. Tucker said that there was no need to take the central government's permission again as it had already given permission for the signing of the MoU between government and government and also government company to government company.

He said that it was with the central government’s permission that the state government was going ahead with Amaravati's development. But the officials pointed out that the companies in the Singapore consortium, namely Ascendas-Singbridge and Sembcorp, were not 100 per cent owned by the Singapore government: they were private companies in which the Singapore government had some shares.