DIPR outsources works to private firm
Source: Hueiyen News Service

Imphal, July 19 2013 : In an apparent lack of a competent authority to monitor the functioning of Department of Information and Public Relations (DIPR), which was set up with the objective of providing information about developmental works of the State Government to the masses, the Department has reportedly outsourced some of its works to a private firm violating certain existing norms.

The employees of DIPR cannot not work up to the mark mainly due to lack of required equipments.

Moreover, some employees of the Department are doing whatever they like in the absence of a competent authority to monitor their activities.

According to a highly placed source, some unusual things were noticed in the telecast of the proceedings of the recent 5th Session of 10th Manipur Legislative Assembly on Doordardhan Kendra Imphal.

In the past, Manipur Legislative Assembly was credited for production at the end of the telecast.

However, the telecast of the recent Assembly Session showed DIPR Manipur presenting the programme in collaboration with a private firm.

The source disclosed that an official deputed by Assembly Secretariat used to edit the video footage of Assembly Session along with the employees of DIPR.

The Assembly Secretariat paid all charges for hiring cameras and editing works.

The authority for the video coverage is the Assembly Secretariat though DIPR arranges the equipments.

Moreover, the telecast fee for 30-minute programme of Assembly Session is also paid by Assembly Secretariat to DDK Imphal.

However, in the video coverage of the recent Assembly Session, the editing works were done in a private firm at Keishamthong without any official of Assembly Secretariat.

The reason for such outsourcing is the lack of editing equipment for video footage captured on mini-DVD cameras at DIPR and some cameras were also hired from the firm, the source said.

An official commented that the video coverage of the Assembly Session cannot be simply outsourced to a private firm.

If necessary, an advertisement should be put up to select a capable firm from among the intending firms for the contract.

However, the DIPR has violated the norms that have been following since 1997 .

Surprisingly, the private firm has been paid all charges for hiring cameras and editing works by DIPR, but the firm did not a single rupee for hiring the Betacam Editing Machine costing more than Rs.15 lakhs from DIPR.

The source further mentioned that no official of DIPR is bothered about the Betacam Machine rented out to the private firm for free of cost.

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