Unique Identification Authority of India (UID) today disqualifies Intelnet Global services also known as serco from its Aadhaar project due to false billing and inability to provide satisfactory services to users. Intelnet was responsible for the helpline management and answering the queries of the applicants. The main reson for axing it was false billing.
Mr. Alok Kumar (Deputy Director General aadhaar) quoted that company was sending false bills to authority which were detected now and also using some unethical techniques to raise the revenue such as placing every caller on hold for 100 sec. The company was also suffering from a workforce shortage and was unable to deal with the growing demand.
Intelnet was acquired by a UK based business processing outsourcing firm Serco for $630 million in May 2011 and was granted a 3 year contract to manage the telephones lines for UIDAI and set up call centers for aadhaar related queries.
UIDAI is also revising the tender because the telephone service provider BSNL has claimed that rates are gone up now from Rs 2.21 a call. This is one of the main reasons why the authority is going to switch over to Tata Business Support System Ltd which is owned by Tata sons.
Mr. Alok also said that company has over accounted the bill to 3 Crores which was expected to be 1.2 Crores in order to increase the revenue which now led to the termination of contract. They had also cross checked with BSNL and found serious disappearances in the bill send by Intelnet. The authority is ready to pay to the company if they provide revised bill which they were refusing. Intelnet has on other hand has refused to make any comment regarding this matter by saying it’s their client business.