Karnataka Minister says he will halt e-procurement tender to purchase books for Government First Grade Colleges after publishers object

This year, the Department of Collegiate Education decided to purchase books for Government First Grade Colleges across Karnataka through the centralised system of e-procurement and listed 4,398 titles to buy. 
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Small and medium-level book publishers and suppliers have strongly objected to the Department of Collegiate Education’s move to purchase books through e-procurement for Government First Grade Colleges across Karnataka. They have also alleged that the tender document for the procurement had been skewed in such a way that only two Kannada publishers qualify. 

Following a representation by the Karnataka Publishers and Book Sellers’ Association to cancel the tender process immediately, Higher Education Minister M.C. Sudhakar told The Hindu that he had received the representation and would order officials to halt the e-procurement process immediately. “A fresh tender with new guidelines will be called soon,” he said. 

The eligibility criteria for participating in the tender included that the bidder have a minimum average annual turnover of ₹6.16 crore during the last three financial years and the bidder should have supplied at least 78,100 books to any government facility or any reputed private sector undertakings over the last three years. This kept out most of the publishers in Kannada and only two of them participated, sources said. 

Publishers demand selection committee, criteria 

The Department of Collegiate Education floated the tender process through e-procurement, under the Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) grant. Earlier, principals conducted the tender process at the college level and purchased the books. 

This year, the department decided to purchase books through the centralised system of e-procurement and listed 4,398 titles to purchase, including 3,187 English, 1,091 Kannada, 76 Urdu, and 45 Hindi titles. 

“The selection process of books by the department is discriminatory. Titles by two publishers have got the lion’s share in the selection list. Besides, the department has listed poor quality content and old books. No committee has been chosen for the selection of books. No advertisement was also published in this regard and the department started buying books in secret, giving rise to suspicions of corruption,” said Shrushti Nagesh, founder of Shrushti Publications.

Dr. Sudhakar has now said that the books to be bought will be selected by principals, but the tender for the same will be called at the State or the zonal level.