NEW DELHI: The government might now have a tighter grip on financial scams in the country. The ministry of finance's Financial Intelligence Unit has awarded an IT contract to Wipro Infotech to develop an IT network to track all irregular financial transactions.

The IT Network will also be able to keep a tab on financing of terrorist organisations as well as money laundering trail in the country.

FIU-IND is the government arm which keeps a tab on all financial transactions in the country. About 10,000 financial organisations, including the stock exchanges are enlisted with it.

Infosys, TCS, erstwhile Satyam and Wipro had bid for the contract last year, out of which all except Satyam were shortlisted for final bidding. The contract was awarded to Wipro last month. The contract is estimated to be in the range of Rs 60-70 crore, though Wipro refused to confirm the size.

The Financial Intelligence Network (FINNet) will be connected FIUs of other countries and also to other departments like CBI, Income Tax and all banks in the

country. Insurance companies and non banking financial institutions will also be mandated to report all irregular financial behaviour of consumers in the network.

“The FINNet implementation will bring in more effective governance from both the economic and security point of view,” Ranbir Singh, head, government vertical, Wipro Infotech said.

Wipro will implement FINnet, which will involve development of a portal, datawarehousing, analytical and business intelligence applications and ERP implementation for the FIU.

An inhouse data centre will also be set up along with a disaster recovery unit. The project is scheduled to be completed in 24 months in different phases with a further service period of 36 months.

Arun Goyal, director FIU India, said: “FINnet will enhance our capabilities to collect financial information, analyse it and disseminate actionable information to various law enforcement and intelligence agencies.”

The project assumes significance in the light of growing economic crimes within the country and the government’s efforts to arrest it.