``The pre-qualification conditions imposed by MSEB were in favour of Siemens as it emphasised the EMS capability of the prospective vendor, although the tender was only for the replacement of the SCADA system,'' said a senior CMC official.

CMC officials said the company has kept its options open to approach the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) for alleged irregularities the MSEB is guilty of in handling its tender for replacing tge R-30 computer.

CMC officials allege that the chief engineer (load dispatch) of MSEB, who headed the working group for replacement of the system, was not consulted during the selection process. The qualifying conditions prepared by the committee were also modified without the chief engineer's knowledge.

Though the original draft for the tender clearly mentions that only vendors having proper infrastructure in India may be allowed to quote, this was deleted and experience in EMS was highlighted to suit the requirements of Siemens, according to a document available with The Financial Express.

Reacting to the allegations Siemens executive vice-president (power transmission and distribution system) S Ramaswami said his company has not in any way influenced the tendering process. He said the pre-qualification conditions were clearly laid out in the tender and pre-bid conferences were also held with the bidders and a fair chance was given to everybody.

``We are clear about the propriety of the protocol and that MSEB has taken cognisance of it. It is up to the customer to decide who is the best. Siemens has always been professional in its approach. We can in no way force MSEB to accept our services,'' Mr Ramaswami added.

Sources say the tender had also been unnecessarily inflated. For instance, civil works have been incorporated in it despite having all the necessary infrastructure for the computer and it does not take more than a table to put up the computer system. The cost for the civil works were quoted at 1.50 crore, according to the documents.

MSEB chairman Yashwant Bhave, however, told this paper that no civil works have been incorporated in the tender. He added that he was not aware of any recommendation for exclusion of Siemens from the bidding process. In a note to the technical member, the chief engineer (LD) has observed that due to inclusion of EMS specifications in the tender only Siemens and ABB qualified for the tender. CMC and CDC who have done similar jobs for other SEBs in India were excluded.

The price quoted by Siemens is Rs 17 crore which the note says is `exorbitant'. The note also has mentioned that CMC and C-DAC had quoted Rs 2.93 crore and Rs 3.43 crore respectively. Meanwhile, former MSEB chairman Ashok Basak who has now been given the additional charge of energy secretary, said Siemens cannot force MSEB to take its services and should allow the MSEB to use the protocol to link the R-30 computer at Kalwa. CMC officials have said their company is no longer in the race since MSEB officials had informed it to collect the tender guarantee money. They also said that after the tender was released there had been seven extensions. This is unusual, the more so because the extensions were announced practically at the last minute, indicating that a particular vendor had influenced the tender evaluation process, these officials claimed.