A 17-year-old student from Jharkhand has triggered a national controversy after publishing a detailed blog post alleging that CBSE systematically altered tender criteria across three bidding rounds to favour Coempt Eduteck, a company with a troubled past. The findings have drawn reactions from senior political leaders and forced the Education Ministry to order a full audit of the On-Screen Marking (OSM) system.
According to a report by Business Standard, Sarthak Sidhant, a Class 12 student, spent days cross-referencing official CBSE bidding documents on the public procurement portal and identified at least 15 discrepancies. His investigation, published on his personal website, claims the eligibility benchmarks for the multi-crore OSM contract were progressively relaxed across three successive Request for Proposal rounds to fit the profile of Coempt Eduteck.
Among the changes Sidhant flagged: clauses disqualifying companies with a history of abandoned projects or financial weakness were quietly removed. The blacklisting criterion was narrowed from “blacklisted earlier” to only firms “currently blacklisted.” The required CMMI Level certification was dropped from Level 5 to Level 3, and the cooling-off period barring the engagement of retired CBSE officials was cut from two years to just one year.
Sidhant also alleged in his blog that Coempt Eduteck was formerly known as Globarena Technologies, the firm at the centre of the 2019 Telangana Intermediate Examination disaster, where thousands of students received incorrect results due to software failures. This connection has added significant weight to concerns about due diligence in the contract award process.
The controversy gained political momentum when Congress leader Rahul Gandhi posted on social media asking “Who lowered the bar for COEMPT?” and demanded a judicial probe into the tendering process. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also called for accountability, with opposition parties citing the episode as evidence of opacity in government procurement for education infrastructure.
CBSE responded by rejecting the allegations outright, calling them “erroneous, misleading and not based on facts” and asserting it followed General Financial Rules protocols in awarding the contract. The Education Ministry, however, announced an audit covering the OSM system from tendering through execution, with the possibility of action against officials or firms if wrongdoing is established.
The episode has reignited questions about transparency in India’s high-stakes examination infrastructure, which directly affects millions of students each year. With the ministry audit now underway, the outcome could reshape how CBSE manages large-scale digital contracts going forward.
