Contractors’ graft woes: Karnataka CM orders probe into all tenders awarded after he took office

In a two-page note addressed to Chief Secretary P Ravi Kumar, the Chief Minister has issued a 5-point diktat and has also directed the Chief Secretary to appoint two committees headed by retired High Court judges with technical and financial experts as members.

Following the CM’s direction, Ravi Kumar has marked copies of Bommai’s note to all Additional Chief Secretaries and Principal Secretaries and also to BBMP Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta. A copy of the note is also available with TheBengaluruLive.

Rs 50-crore ceiling

The CM’s note says, “The cabinet has recently passed amendments to the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurements Act, primarily to ensure that the pre-qualification criteria are properly framed as per the provisions of the KTPP Act and that tender estimates are also strictly in accordance with the law. In order to ensure this, it has been decided to appoint two committees headed by retired High Court judges and with technical and financial experts in the committees. Thereafter, for any civil work which is more than Rs 50 crore, the concerned department has to submit the tender document to this committee which in turn will put the entire tender document in the public domain. After getting views from the public, (the committee) will scrutinize the pre-qualification criteria and the estimates and after vetting the same the document will be approved for tendering. This will bring in more transparency (sic).”

(However, the Chief Secretary has reduced the Rs 50-crore civil work criterion to Rs 10 crore in the case of BBMP.)

The CM’s note goes on to say, “From the day I took charge as Chief Minister, all the major works awarded in the above-said departments have to be scrutinized and a detailed inquiry has to be held wherever any irregularities are noticed. Please give immediate instructions to all the concerned Additional Chief Secretaries and Principal Secretaries of the above-said departments.”

Electronic format

Bommai’s note adds, “To weed out corrupt practices, time-bound clearances and approval of all contracts including awarding of works should be done. For this, a specific timetable has to be prepared and the same has to be strictly followed. The note says “bills can be allotted computer-generated numbers and a Centralized Accounting System can be established.”

As per the Chief Minister’s directive, an audit and bill payment system can be established wherein the contractor does not come in contact with the auditor/accountant. The electronic format of submission of bills directly by the Executive Engineer to the Accounts section will automatically generate the bill number, the CM’s note points out.