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Please help me clear away this doubt in following question regarding the use of verb "are".

"These recently upgraded branch offices have been fully computerised and are connected to headquarters to ensure proper monitoring"

Is the above sentence correct? Or should "are" be removed?

In my opinion," have" has already its verb v3 of computerize i.e computerised and later part of the sentence i.e "These recent upgraded branch offices are connected to headquarters to ensure proper monitoring" sounds okay to me.

What do you think?

Thank you everyone.

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    It would be grammatically ok to remove "are", but the meaning is slightly different. The "have been...computerized" part implies that there was a time when they were not computerized (presumably before the upgrade). But the "...are connected..." part does not imply this - it only tells us how things are now. They might always have been connected.
    – John B
    Commented Mar 4, 2021 at 20:47

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As written the sentence means

These recently upgraded branch offices have been fully computerised, and these recently upgraded branch offices are connected to headquarters to ensure proper monitoring.

If you remove "are" the meaning changes slightly to

These recently upgraded branch offices have been fully computerised, and these recently upgraded branch offices have been connected to headquarters to ensure proper monitoring.

The difference in meaning is very slight. Both tell us about the current state of the offices (i.e. "connected to headquarters") The first just describes the present situation. The second describes the present situation as a result of the past action of upgrading. But the difference is so slight that both could be considered grammatical and natural.

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It's grammatical either way, but it parses differently, and has a different meaning.

Without "are" it expands to

These recently upgraded branch offices have been fully computerised and [have been] connected to headquarters

so "connected" is part of a present perfect passive verb phrase: it is talking about what has been done to them.

With "are", "connected" is an adjective, and the clause describes their current status.

Probably both options make sense here, but they are saying different things.

[You can tell that "are connected" isn't a passive verb phrase here because the tense doesn't make sense: it would be the so-called "present simple", i.e. a timeless or habitual use.]

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