A Class 12 student has once again put the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) under scrutiny, raising fresh questions about the tendering process for its On-Screen Marking (OSM) project. Sarthak Sidhant alleges that changes in financial eligibility criteria between two tender rounds, issued just three months apart, may have unfairly benefited Coempt Eduteck, the company responsible for scanning and digital evaluation.
Allegations of Shifting Financial Criteria
Sidhant, who previously highlighted issues with CBSE's tendering, pointed out discrepancies in how financial years and turnover requirements were evaluated. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), he detailed how the May tender specified financial years FY21, FY22, and FY23 with a ₹50 crore turnover limit, which Coempt allegedly failed to meet by a 14.83% margin.
However, just three months later, the August tender reportedly shifted the reference financial years to FY22, FY23, and FY24. Under these revised criteria, Coempt cleared the turnover requirement by a narrow 1.7% margin. Sidhant questioned why the financial years were not updated in the earlier tender, especially since May falls after the start of the new financial year.
Concerns Over Removed Clauses and Blacklisting Rules
Beyond the financial year changes, Sidhant's detailed blog post highlighted other significant modifications between the initial Request for Proposal (RfP) and the final tender document. He claims that clauses allowing disqualification for a history of "abandoning work," failing to complete contractual obligations, or demonstrating financial weaknesses were removed from the revised tender.
He further alleged that if these clauses had remained, Coempt's operational history, particularly under its previous name, Globarena, during the 2019 Telangana Intermediate Examination controversy, would have posed a "massive legal hurdle."
Sidhant also drew attention to a change in the blacklisting provisions. The language reportedly shifted from disqualifying firms "blacklisted earlier" to only those "currently blacklisted." This subtle but critical alteration, he argues, could have impacted the eligibility of companies with past disciplinary records.
The Narrow Margin of Qualification
The student's investigation, which he states involved reviewing 576 CBSE tenders, found that Coempt's average turnover over the relevant three-year period (FY22-24) was ₹50.86 crore, barely exceeding the ₹50 crore eligibility threshold. Sidhant described this "razor-thin margin of less than 1.7%" as suspicious, especially since another bidder had previously suggested lowering the turnover requirement to ₹30 crore to encourage broader participation.
These allegations unfold amidst the ongoing CBSE OSM controversy, where several Class 12 students reported finding discrepancies in scanned copies of their answer sheets, with some even claiming to have received answer books that did not belong to them.