Former Minister of Law in the Yeddyurappa cabinet and senior BJP leader S.Suresh Kumar on Thursday strongly condemned the allotment of tender to Matrix Imaging Solutions, in which Karnataka Chief Minister’s son Yathindra Siddharamaiah is a director, to set up a diagnostic facility within the premises of Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute (BMCRI).
“It looks like the whole process and the regulations for allotting tenders have been violated. The tender has to be cancelled with immediate effect. There is nothing transparent about this allotment,” said Suresh Kumar to The News Minute.
Dr.P G Girish, Special Officer of the BCMRI, in a report claimed, “Four to five companies came in the pre-bid stage. Later, two companies, Matrix and HLL, were shortlisted but HLL did not submit a demand draft on time…. We cannot do anything if others did not qualify.” Justifying that the process was conducted through e-tender, he added, “We did not know the chief minister’s son was a director. Our interactions were with his partner.”
Reacting to this statement, Suresh Kumar expressed that the doctor must be given the benefit of doubt as it is not his responsibility to know the profiles of the partners of the company. However, he voiced that as the Chairman of BMCRI, it was the responsibility of the Chief Minister Siddharamaiah to share that his son is a director with the institution, after the tender was submitted. “I agree that he cannot be denied the contract on the basis of being the son of CM. But the allotment should have been according to rules and regulation, and from a fair process”, he told The News Minute.
Matrix Imaging was registered as a company in 2009 by partners Satish Prasad and Ramesh Gowda. Dr.Yathindra Siddharamaiah joined the company as the director in September 2014, soon after which Satish Prasad resigned. Matrix was allotted the contract in October 2015, and according to reports will also be setting up medical diagnostic facilities in government-run hospitals in Mysuru and Gulbarga. Media reports also suggest that the doctors of the institution voiced their concern to Dr.Girish about the setting up of a private facility, when a state of the art labs were already functioning within the campus and felt that the government land was misused to make profits.