# CBSE yet to pay vendor or impose penalties for OSM glitches 2026-10-22T16:31:55+00:00 | Governance | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 2 independent outlets The Central Board of Secondary Education has not yet received a sanction order to pay Coempt Edu Teck, its vendor for the on-screen marking system (OSM) that suffered glitches during the 2026 Class 12 board exams. The board's finance division also has no information on any penalties imposed on the company, according to an October 14 reply to a Right to Information application filed by Hindustan Times on August 22. CBSE had told Hindustan Times in June it would penalise Coempt for shortcomings in the online evaluation system. However, the finance department's RTI response said: 'No such information is available with the Finance Section.' The August 2025 tender allowed for fines, including Rs 1 lakh for every 15-minute delay in fixing issues, but a corrigendum in September 2025 removed references to blacklisting vendors before Coempt was awarded the contract on December 5. Meanwhile, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday attacked the government over the row, alleging the 'vote chor, paper chor sarkaar must go'. He shared a media report and said that despite five months passing since irregularities in the OSM system, the vendor has not been penalised. The contract's total value was over Rs 38 crore, he said. ## Indian Opinion Analysis Hindustan Times reports the story as a straight factual follow-up based on its own RTI, detailing the absence of payment and penalties without editorialising. Orissa Post frames the same facts through Congress criticism, leading with Jairam Ramesh's allegation of government protection of the vendor and the slogan 'vote chor, paper chor sarkaar'. Where Hindustan Times keeps the focus on the board's administrative inaction, Orissa Post foregrounds political blame. The balanced reading is that the RTI reply confirms no payment or penalty has been processed, while the political response, reported only by Orissa Post, adds a layer of attack on the education ministry. No source names a next step or deadline for any decision on payment or penalties. The coverage is uniform on the core facts: CBSE's finance division has no sanction order for payment and no record of penalties against Coempt. ## Coverage Coverage: 2 sources, 1 government-critical, 1 neutral - hindustantimes.com (neutral report) Straight RTI-based reporting without editorialising - orissapost.com (government critical) Leads with Congress attack, foregrounds political blame This brief was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above, so one read covers every framing they carry. Tags: CBSE, Coempt Edu Teck, Congress, Hindustan Times, Jairam Ramesh, Orissa Post Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/cbse-yet-to-pay-vendor-or-impose-penalties-for-osm-glitches/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/cbse-yet-to-pay-vendor-or-impose-penalties-for-osm-glitches/#story-in-brief How this brief was made: an AI model read the reports linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. Stance labels are editorial classifications of how each outlet framed this story, assigned by the same model, not ratings of the outlets. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/