ONGC's public sector to public sector contract: A licence to kill – 28 Mar 2025

So what really happens when you palm off work, like ONGC did to Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders for a high-value offshore project?

They do not really have the capacity, so they just sub-contract it away, almost entirely.

Never in the history of ONGC's contracting has a company who had been awarded a project without a tender has so completely and brazenly subcontracted the entire thing away.

It is ridiculous, how this is being done, without anyone raising an eyebrow, because it is a public sector to public sector contract, even though now there is a private consultant involved, and there are a whole lot of private bidders in the fray.

There is a difference of course, L&T had bid several hundred crores more, so Mazagon had offered to take it for less, but we will have to wait and watch what happens next, in terms of time and cost overruns, as the project is expected to be completed before monsoons hit the Arabian sea next year.