From Developers to Agents

MARGAO: Currently, if any government department wants to procure IT hardware, they have to approach the Infotech Corporation of Goa (ITG). By next month, if they want to set-up or maintain their website, they will have to approach the Goa Electronic Limited (GEL).Earlier, Directorate of Information Technology (DoIT) was solely in charge of empanelment of website development agencies. The agencies were empanelled for two years which expired in mid-2015. Subsequently, the government departments could not develop their websites using empanelled agencies. Sources in DoIT informed Herald that the Government is planning to hand over the responsibilities of empanelment and maintenance of government websites to GEL. The process of empanelment will be complete by end of September.

Interestingly, GEL itself is a software development firm. It had been awarded the E-District Mission Mode Project popularly known as GoaOnline.gov. Whether these duties will result in a conflict of interest is yet to be known. However, according to DoIT officials, the reason for appointing GEL is because government departments are unable to update and maintain websites. With this model, they claim that GEL will handle the maintenance of government websites even if the empanelled website agency fails to maintain the website.

Although the details of GEL’s responsibilities is yet to be revealed, officials seemed confident that the benefits of the new arrangement will be beneficial to all the stake holders.  However, the real question is that of transparency. Herald had previously reported that GEL was illegally charging GST on Government services. GEL is yet to reveal their service charges and the percentage of GST levied on the bills generated at the Citizens Facilitation Centers in South Goa district Collectorate.

Why Is ITG charging a percentage as service fee?

While there are benefits to the government’s policy centralising procurement procedure, the major issue with this model is the service fee in terms of percentage which is levied on the department along with an addition GST.  ITG acts like a procurement agent between the government departments and empanelled vendors. They provide the standard services without investing any capital or additional manpower, no matter the cost or quantity of the IT equipment. Why then is ITG charging a percentage (5%) of the total cost of the equipment and not a standard flat fee?Recently, the Directorate of Technical education awarded ITG the contract of providing repairs and AMC for Information Communication Technology Equipment for one year. The total cost of repairs to be given to ITG was Rs 1,84,139. ITG imposed an additional service charge of 7% which amounts to Rs 12,889 along with 18% GST of 2320.The Government is yet to justify the benefits of charging a service fee and GST from other government departments instead of giving a flat annual grant to ITG for all procurement and maintained works.