EPF meeting today will take call on project which cost last boss his job

When EPFO’s Central Board of Trustees meet tomorrow, they will have to discuss a status report on the project whose aim is to completely computerise provident fund transactions.

The report, which is not part of the general agenda papers but has been enclosed separately (though it has been listed as Item Number 3 on list of issues that will be considered), is damning.

It indicates that the project is ill-conceived, badly monitored, poorly run and is proving to be a huge waste of resources.

The Trustees, who have till now received only glowing reports on the project which still occupies the pride of place on EPFO’s website, will then have to take some hard decisions. Should the project be scrapped altogether or largely overhauled? Should it be put on hold?

At the very least, it will signal the death of a promise to revolutionise the way in which thousands of crores lying in the EPFO kitty are handled. With computerisation and a double-entry accounting system, Singh had promised that a member would be given his cheque within three days of making a claim on EPFO and corrupt officials would no longer have the freedom to either harass honest employers or to spare the defaulters.

After his hint that vested interests would oppose such a system and his claim that EPFO should not report to the Labour Ministry but directly to the PMO, Singh was given the boot. Some months later his deputy A Vishwanathan, who had helped Singh conceive the Reinventing EPF India project, was also transferred out.

The status report has now ripped the Reinventing EPF to shreds. Among other things, it claims:

• Trustees had been told that the capital cost of the new project would be Rs 130 crore and the running cost Rs 17 crore. In fact, the total cost of the project would be Rs 700 crore

• The time schedule for completing the project was not prepared scientifically or realistically

• Even though there was a delay at every stage, no action was taken

• And, most damagingly: ‘‘The very concept may not prove very viable… Therefore, an alternative model is also highly desirable… This has not been looked at so far.’’

That sounds like the end of the dream project.