Jayesh Ranjan Faces Investigation for Alleged Violations in IT Procurement

Documents available with Deccan Chronicle suggest that Ranjan approved procuring equipment worth `278 crore directly from the companies without floating tenders, which is stated to be in violation of Central Vigilance Commission norms. The investigating agencies including the Enforcement Directorate (ED) were flooded with complaints against the alleged irregularities by the senior bureaucrat.

Interestingly, Arvind Kumar and Jayesh Ranjan are known to be members of ‘KTR team’. Soon after K.T. Rama Rao became minister for IT, industries and municipal administration, Ranjan was appointed secretary of IT and industries in 2015 and Arvind Kumar as MA&UD secretary in 2018. They continued in the posts during the BRS government tenure.

Arvind Kumar was transferred recently to a non-focal job in the disaster management wing but Ranjan continues in IT and industries post even after the change of government.

The documents with Deccan Chronicle suggested that Ranjan resorted to the alleged violation of norms citing “paucity of time” and avoided floating tenders and awarding contract to seven vendors of Cisco. The documents state that the consultant, Qualcom, had recommended Cisco equipment.

The documents show that Ranjan had approved the note on December 1, 2022, for execution and procurement of equipment from seven registered vendors – Nipun Net Solutions, Arun Kapital Networks, Uday Network Technologies, Shell Networks and Solutions, Nettlinx, Pioneer eLabs of Cisco, and BSNL — for phones and internet service just by inviting quotations and not floating tenders.

The justification cited by Ranjan was that the then Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao had decided to inaugurate the Secretariat on January 18, 2023. The actual inauguration, it may be recalled, took place in April last.

Questions are also being raised over how Ranjan could claim paucity of time because the old Secretariat was demolished in July 2020 and the construction of new complex commenced in January 2021. It was known to all that equipment would have to be purchased for the new Secretariat. Despite this, both the roads and buildings department, which executed the construction of the Secretariat, and the IT department did not make any initiatives for two years to procure equipment, until the inauguration date neared.

Meanwhile, senior Congress leader Bakka Judson filed a complaint with the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in August 2023 alleging a Rs 300-crore scam in the procurement of equipment for the Secretariat. He complained that the procurement was done directly from companies without calling global tenders.

In a complaint submitted to the ED joint director here, Judson said: "The total value of supplied items is less than Rs 20 crore but was billed for Rs 300 crore, which is the handiwork of IT principal secretary Jayesh Ranjan with a quid pro quo process."

Judson alleged that the TS Technology Services (TSTS) and IT, electronics and communication department (IT&C) had indulged in this scam to loot the state exchequer and divert these funds to the BRS for the Assembly polls.

"There was no managing director/ commissioner for TSTS and Mee Seva at that time, which play a key role in these procurements. Jayesh Ranjan is incharge for ITE&C and also TSTS. He ran the entire show. The procurement process is against the CVC guidelines specified for global tenders,” Judson stated.

He brought to the notice of ED that there were several leading companies in the network components sector and were delivering services with credibility such as Wipro, TCS and Tech Mahindra. He alleged that these companies were not invited for bidding and were removed from the list by quoting the price. Judson also alleged that major brands were eliminated without reason which included HP, Lenovo and Dell.

Judson said in his complaint that the claims of Infinite Computer Solution (India), that it was a partner of Qualcomm, were questionable. He requested the ED and central investigation agencies to probe into this alleged scam and book the culprits.