Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) chairman Rahul Singh and secretary Himanshu Gupta have been transferred out amid mounting scrutiny over the procurement process for the board’s on-screen marking (OSM) system and alleged irregularities in the full-scale rollout of the platform used to assess Class 12 answer scripts, people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.
Their new postings were not immediately clear. Following the transfers, Lokhande Prashant Sitaram was appointed as the new CBSE chairman
The government has also constituted a one-member committee comprising a retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer S. Radha Chauhan, to inquire into matters relating to the procurement of services for the OSM system by the CBSE. Chauhan is currently chairperson of the Capacity Building Commission (CBC), a body tasked with driving the standardisation and harmonisation of civil services in the country.
An office memorandum issued by the Cabinet Secretariat on Tuesday said that the committee would submit its report to the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) within a month.
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“The chairperson of the committee is empowered to obtain the assistance of officers from other offices, as required. Secretarial assistance to the committee will be provided by CBC,” the memorandum said.
The committee’s formation follows the Union education ministry’s intensified examination of alleged irregularities in the CBSE’s tendering process and cybersecurity vulnerabilities linked to the board’s digital evaluation ecosystem.
It also follows anger among parents and teachers amid what appears to be a rushed process to roll out an entirely new mechanism for scoring nearly 10 million answer scripts despite concerns.
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CBSE officials have denied allegations of wrongdoing and maintained that the tender process was conducted in accordance with General Financial Rules (GFR) and established government procurement procedures.
HT earlier reported that the contract was awarded to Coempt Edu Teck on December 5, just 74 days before the first board examinations began on February 17.
