PrintWeek
India: Ahmedabad: Thursday, 19 March 2015.
Information
accessed through Right to Information (RTI) Act by Rajen Amin, an
Ahmedabad-based activist, has revealed that something is amiss in the Gujarat
Council of Education and Research Training (GCERT)’s tendering procedure for
magazine and printing supplies during 2013-14. He has claimed that a major
fraud and corruption has been committed in the tendering process.
According to
reports, Amin has claimed that contract for printing magazines was awarded at
just Rs 70-lakh to Reliable Art Printery in Ahmedabad, but further orders
amounting to Rs 40-45-crore were issued to the same printer, without following
the procedure of re-tendering.
A prominent
books and magazine printer in Ahmedabad, who did not want to be named, said
that the printing fraternity in Ahmedabad is greatly distressed with what has
been revealed. “This is just not correct. This amounts to unfair advantage to
one printer, and injustice on many others,” he said.
According to
the printers, “The cost quoted for a single page was Rs 0.27 and for double it
was Rs 0.29, totalling to Rs 0.58 for single sheet, two side printing. But the
GCERT allowed the company to charge Rs 1.08 for four pages at the cost of Rs
0.27 per page, leading to greater profit margin for the company.”
In addition,
Reliable was also allowed to charge for cover pages as extra, in spite of it
being part of the total cost of Rs 6.05 per 32-page copy of the magazine
including covers.
The GCERT,
according to reports, has rubbished the allegation, claiming that the tender
processing has been done as per rules and regulations, and there are no
wrongdoings in the case. A committee was formed, which had approved the party
which quoted the least rates. A report prepared by a retired government
official has been submitted to the government.
Last year in
its August issue, PrintWeek India in an article had cited how the 90+ web
offset press installations, most with Flowline machine, in a span of just one
and a half year, had impacted the book and magazine printing business. Mudresh Purohit, president of the Ahmedabad
Printing Press Association (APPA) had said, “The Gujarat State School Textbook
Board (Gujarat Rajya ShalaPathyapustak Mandal) made a commitment that if you
have enough machinery, it could provide 25% extra book work.” As a result, many
companies bolstered their plant with web offset and post-press machinery.
This new
revelation is the last thing that the book and magazine printing industry in
Ahmedabadwanted. It will be interesting to see how the print community will
react to the development.
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