Probe recommends sacking tainted official

A probe committee of the Home Ministry has recommended sacking one of its under-secretaries found involved in the manipulation of tender specifications of the National ID Card Project.

An internal probe conducted by the ministry found that Anil Dutta, the under-secretary at the National ID Management Centre, was directly involved in manipulating some specifications of the bid document.

“He made a serious mistake by manipulating some specifications of the bid documents. Hence, we have decided to sack him from the civil service and in this regard, we will soon write to the Public Service Commission, seeking its nod for his removal,” a senior Home Ministry official told the Post.

The Home Ministry has suspended him for six months until a final decision is taken.

“We had sought a clarification from Dutta. We have recommended the minister and the Home Secretary to take strong action against him, which means sacking him from the job, as his clarification failed to satisfy the probe panel,” a senior official at the Home Ministry said.

Home Secretary Nabin Ghimire confirmed that the probe panel had recommended sacking Dutta. “However, I have not taken a final call on whether he should be sacked or not,” he said.

A ministry-level decision is first required to execute this recommendation, for which, Home Minister Madhav Ghimire has already given a go-ahead.

Under the aegis of the Home Ministry, the National Identity Card Centre had invited an international bid to introduce the NID, which will cost $117 million in the first phase. A total of $8 million for the first phase will be funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The pilot project aims to distribute 110,000 IDs in that phase.

The multi-million dollar project invited controversy after a group of bidders lodged a formal complaint at the Prime Minister’s Office, the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) and the ADB over the tender document.

The internal probe found that the specifications were prepared in a way that suited the experience and qualification of one German company, Gemalto.

MoHA sources said the specifications approved by the home ministry-level meeting and the one that appeared in the global tender notice did not match.

After competing bidders cried foul over tender specifications being ‘manipulated,’ the Home Ministry has made some amendments in the documents.

Though the probe panel has recommended Dutta’s removal, the ministry is still undecided on whether to go ahead with the global tender that was prepared by a team of experts, including one hired by the ADB.

“The entire bid should be reviewed because some specifications were inserted on behalf of one particular bidder. Dutta’s involvement in the matter means that there are some serious flaws in the bid documents,” the Ministry official said.

The competing bidders have expressed reservations over the inclusion of features in the bid document such as submitting proof of ‘intergraf certification’ which is only used in Europe. They have also demanded removing the provision that says the bidder should have over 10 years of experience in handling and supplying of laser-engraved polycarbonate cards.

“We do not want the Machine Readable Passport saga repeated, where several specifications were changed under the influence of a certain bidder. This process should go on smoothly without it being dragged to any controversy, while donors’ and public money should not be embezzled,” the official said.  More information about the program is available on the web site at www.careel-tech.com.

YCCC’s new machining facility ready

This fall 24 students will have the opportunity to enroll in precision machining programs at York County Community College’s new facility in Sanford.

The community college held an open house on Monday to celebrate the new program and to give the media a look at the newly renovated 6,050-square-foot space at One Eagle Drive in South Sanford that will house the program. The facility includes classrooms and a fully outfitted manufacturing laboratory.

Interim YCCC President Scott Knapp guided a visitor to the laboratory where new conventional machining equipment and computer numerically controlled machining tools were positioned in work stations around the cavernous room. Knapp pointed out a long row of conventional, manually operated metal-working machines, along a wall of the laboratory.

“That’s where you start in the field,” he said.

The larger, computer numerically controlled (CNC) machines stood in another row.
Knapp said the field is called “precision machining” because tools and parts for the aircraft industry, automobile industry and other high-tech applications really do have to be precise. He said starting salaries, with an associate degree, can be $40,000 or more.

YCCC had originally planned to accept 12 students into the program the first year and another 12 the next year. Knapp said Monday that the program will accept 24 students for the first year and that there is room at the facility for an additional program, if there is a need and a demand for it. Knapp pointed to a wall of the laboratory and said that YCCC has the option to lease another 5,000 square feet beyond the wall.

“We know we’re not meeting the state’s needs,” he said.

In addition to his interim position at YCCC, Knapp is president of Central Maine Community College in Auburn, one of three community colleges in the state that currently offers a precision machining technology program.

Bob Franklin, an engineer, who used to work in the aerospace industry, was lured away from a school in Hudson, N.Y., where he taught mechanical engineering and built a high-tech manufacturing program for students. He has been hired to head up YCCC’s new precision machining program. Knapp said YCCC is in the process of hiring an additional teacher.

“We’ve got great hopes for this program,” Franklin said on Monday. “We think we can [accommodate] over 100 students.”

YCCC will offer two precision machining programs beginning in September. Students can take a one-year certificate program in which they will learn to operate conventional machine tools, read and analyze engineering drawings and use precision measuring and inspection instruments. They will also receive an introduction to CNC machines and their operation.

The two-year associate degree program is designed to prepare students to apply technical knowledge and skills to use either conventional or CNC machine tools, such as lathes and milling machines, to produce precision parts. It will include instruction in blueprint reading, machining, lathe and mill operations, and other computer and related technical instruction as well as liberal arts, applied mathematics, and shop and safety practices.

There are a number of manufacturing companies in York County that employ highly skilled machinists, including Pratt & Whitney in North Berwick and General Dynamics in Saco, the two largest in the state, as well as many smaller companies. In addition, many positions are going unfilled because companies cannot find employees with the skills they need. More information about the program is available on the web site at www.careel-tech.com.

A show of steel as Barrett establishes a new brand

Daniel Redgwick, general manager of the new Barrett Constructional steel business, said the business was established “as a centralised operation to meet the growing demand from the UK construction industry”.

He said: “We have worked with clients in the structural fabrication and construction markets for many years for projects such as bridges, hospitals, schools, shopping centres and industrial buildings.”

He said the new business will refine its services to clients and help build the reputation it has already established for quality and competitively priced products.

Mr Redgwick was previously a sales manager at the Barrett Group in Bradford before taking on the new role. The new division offers customers “all the benefits” of being part of the UK’s largest independent steel stockholder.

Barrett Constructional has extensive dock facilities which allows them to deliver to customers promptly. The company also unified all its engineering services under one name – Barrett Engineering Steel. The companies involved in the move are as diverse as Rotherham in south Yorkshire, Oldham in Greater Manchester, Consett in Durham and Dudley, in the West Midlands.

John Childs, managing director of the engineering division, said it consolidated the businesses and gave a strong corporate identity that supports growth in the UK and exports. BES provides specialist materials such as black and bright carbon and alloy and stainless products. They offer cutting, forging, heating and testing.

At a time when many similar companies in the sector are contracting, Barrett Steel with 42 firms working out of 28 sites across the UK and Ireland is bucking this trend. It continues to invest and is confident of future growth. A recent acquisition was a steel stockholding company in Maghaberry, near Lisburn, from the Sterling Group. The company, a five-acre site with a 30,000 sq foot steel processing facility, will now trade as Barrett Steel Ireland Ltd.

The purchase in Ireland demonstrates the company’s commitment to Ireland and providing customers an extensive range of products and processing facilities. The company made its first acquisition in Ireland in 2012.

The facility will offer processed options such as shotblasting and priming and automatic drilling and cutting to customer specifications.

The company was established in 1866 by the eponymous Henry Barrett and is now the UK’s largest independent steel stockholder.

A processing facility has recently opened in Houston,Texas in addition to the UK facilities in Bradford, Scunthorpe and the West Midlands. It enables them to saw, cut, punch, drill and shear and laser marking machine tubular and flat products as well as shotblasting, primer painting and profiling.

Group marketing manager Chris Lamb said they were taking a more diversified approach and looking at renewables; oil and gas and offshore, but the core of the business “has always been manufacturing and construction”.

“The ethos of the company is to move away from traditional thinking with steel to becoming more of a solutions provider, we can supply the needs of the customer and we’ve adapted to the market.” With oil and gas, they are looking towards India and China.

Constructional seals don’t travel well, so they don’t export to these markets. In the next year, the company plans to recruit following the acquisition of the Irish steel company.

Offshore Wind Energy Development

The progress that offshore wind energy has made thus far in the U.S. could be stymied by cuts made under sequestration, U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) Secretary Ken Salazar said at the Offshore Wind Power USA conference, which is being held in Boston this week.

"We have made impressive gains - approving dozens of utility-scale solar, wind and geothermal projects in the West, and transitioning from planning to commercial leasing for offshore wind," Salazar said during his keynote address. “The potentially devastating impact of budget reductions under sequestration could slow our economy and hurt energy sector workers and businesses."

Mandatory budget cuts under sequestration could delay the DOI's ability to issue permits for new development, plan for new projects, conduct environmental reviews and lease new federal lands for future development - both for renewable and conventional energy, Salazar said.

The cuts would mean fewer studies, fewer opportunities to obtain meaningful stakeholder input, and delays in identification of potential use conflicts, Salazar continued, adding that the result could be a slower pace in identifying and leasing wind energy areas in federal waters, thus adversely impacting the DOI's ability to address offshore renewable energy management in a timely manner.

The DOI has already issued two non-competitive commercial wind energy leases - one off Massachusetts and another off Delaware - and is moving forward with the first-ever competitive lease sales for wind energy areas off Virginia and Rhode Island/Massachusetts, which will offer nearly 278,000 acres for development.

The areas proposed could support more than 4 GW of wind energy generation. Salazar also signed a lease and approved a construction and operations plan for the 130-turbine Cape Wind project.

Salazar said the DOI's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will propose additional commercial lease sales this year for wind energy areas offshore New Jersey, Maryland and Massachusetts, and is working to determine industry interest in three areas off North Carolina. BOEM also is processing a lease request from Statoil to develop floating wind turbines in federal waters off Maine. Other demonstration projects are proposed off Virginia and Oregon.

In addition, BOEM is considering a mid-Atlantic wind energy transmission line that would 7 GW of wind turbine capacity to the grid. The Atlantic Wind Connection would run from southern Virginia to northern New Jersey, collecting power produced by wind facilities off New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia and bringing it ashore.

Laser cut designs combine style and technology

From a distance it looks like a giant copy machine, but the laser cutter that sits in the MakeATX workshop in an East Austin warehouse has the power to engrave and cut with a laser beam. As it slices a design into construction paper on a recent afternoon, it looks oddly similar to a tattoo machine in action. With light flickering from the tip of the laser cutter’s head, it quickly but precisely perforates the paper in the silhouette of a woman’s face. These particular designs appear as stage props in the theater production of “Ragtime” at the Zach Theatre, but as those who work with the machine know, the possibilities are endless.

Among all the ingenious projects that have been born at the artist haven that is the Pump Project Satellite, perhaps none are as unique as those created at the member-based digital fabrication workshop MakeATX. It’s there where clever folks get to play with lasers—well, actually, the workshop’s laser cutter that’s lovingly been named Patty Princess of Power.

With the laser cutter machine’s multifunctions, MakeATX members are constantly discovering new ways to create everything from wall art and jewelry to teaching aids.

A strong do-it-yourself movement coupled with a growing popularity of digitally driven design tools means we’re in the midst of an exciting new era for the next generation of fabricators who from a desktop can control the making of their creations.

So it’s no wonder when MakeATX co-owners Kristen von Minden and Eve Trester-Wilson opened their member-based digital fabrication workshop a year ago that word quickly spread among Austin’s creative circles. By making the software, computers and laser cutter publicly available, MakeATX brought technology and art together and made manufacturing more accessible for Austin hobbyists and artists alike.

Nationally, digital manufacturing is growing with more fabrication workshops similar to MakeATX popping up. With the way innovation is heading in this area, it might not be long until fabrication machines are affordable to many of us.

But for now von Minden and Trester-Wilson know they are on the verge of something special. They see it every day in their workshop and in all the projects they and their group of about 20 members make. In addition to memberships, they also design their own products and offer custom laser cutting.

MakeATX originally grew out of a funny email exchange between the friends and former colleagues. After von Minden graduated from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, she asked Trester-Wilson about architectural-related job prospects in Austin.

“Yeah, job prospects aren’t so good,” Trester-Wilson wrote in June 2010. “What if we start our own firm? Maybe we should buy a laser cutter?” A startled but excited von Minden started dreaming of the possibilities.

As trained architects, both women were familiar with laser cutting technology, which operates a lot like a desktop printer, von Minden says, except that it “prints” with a laser beam. Using graphics software, digital images can be sent to the laser cutter. But at MakeATX, they convert hand-drawn images as well.