India, June 5 -- Between the first two tenders issued by the Central Board of Secondary Education for on-screen marking (OSM), and the work order for the third, which was issued to the successful bidder Coempt Edu Teck, the estimated contract value increased by Rs.10 crore for the same volume of work, from Rs.28 crore to Rs.38.46 crore, a review of the three documents shows.

And based on the actual price for the actual number of answer sheets scanned, the value of the work comes to Rs.25.39 crore, roughly 66% of the value mentioned in the work order, despite the volume of work being only 42% of that mentioned in the two tenders and also the work order.

The mismatch of the numbers only serves to highlight the opaqueness of the process wh...