BSNL, which seeks a revaluation of its technical bid, alleges a conflict of interest in the bidding process, pointing out that global consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), which provided consultancy for this bid, is HPE's partner in developing the smart city application. 

Bhopal Smart City Development Corporation Ltd (BSCDCL) had invited tenders for cloud-based common integrated data and disaster recovery centres in seven cities in Madhya Pradesh, apart from setting up integrated command and control centres for the smart cities. The final decision on awarding the tender will be taken at a board meeting on October 23. 

Principal general manager of BSNL, Sandeep Sawarkar, has written to BSCDCL chief executive Chandramauli Shuklan that PwC is "consultant for this bid and HPE has bid directly in the RFP (request for proposal)". "This is known and published news that HPE and PwC are partnered to develop the smart city application and subjected RFP is on smart city application and the IoT (Internet of things) platform, which will be used at ICCC for Smart Cities. PwC will do development, testing and support for the same. Hence, there is a major conflict of interest and should be addressed accordingly..," 

Copies of this letter, dated October 6, have been sent to the chief secretary of Madhya Pradesh, assistant secretary of department of IT, additional secretary of urban development ministry, mission director of Smart Cities, Government of India, principal secretary of MP's Urban Administration and Environment Department and chief general manager BSNL, New Delhi. 

HPE preferred to remain silent on BSNL's allegation of 'conflict of interest'. "While we cannot comment on confidential details of our commercial tenders, HPE adheres to high standards of business conduct," an HPE spokesperson replied to TOI's query by email, adding: "..we have tremendous capability to support the government's smart cities mission because of our global experience and our existing operations in India. Since its inception in 2012, eHCs have benefited lakhs of citizens across India including in the state of Madhya Pradesh." 

....