Local Bodies Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu (File photo)
Armed with Advocate General Atul Nanda’s legal opinion on single bid tenders, Local Bodies Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu has ordered framing of a chargesheet against four suspended superintending engineers, P K Goel, Kulwinder Singh, Pawan Sharma and Dharam Singh.
Sidhu, who also wants a chargesheet against three IAS officers Sonali Giri, G S Khera and Ghanshyam Thori, has asked for a separate file to be put up before him in their case to be sent to the Chief Minister for sanction. Earlier in July, Sidhu had suspended four superintendent engineers for allotting work under single bid tenders. He had said that IAS officers, who had approved the single bid tenders to award work in their capacity as MC Commissioners, would also be chargesheeted. Sidhu alleged “illegalities” by pointing out that “works worth Rs 500 crore out of Rs 800 crore were awarded through single bid tenders”.
In its report to the Local Government Department on June 19 in which it examined sample records of four Municipal Corporations Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Bathinda, Chief Vigilance Officer of the department pointed out that out of 1,002 work-orders involving Rs 788 crore, 512 work orders were issued on single bid basis and 109 orders were issued only after receiving two bids.
“Allotment of work order based on single bid (or two bids) post e-tendering can be undertaken only in specific cases based on their merit after recording detailed justification. None of the cases where work orders are allotted based on 1 or 2 bids can be categorised as special cases meriting approval. Hence, all these orders should have been allotted only with minimum of three bids,” CVO said in the report.
In his opinion, AG Nanda noted that the procedure adopted for consideration and grant single bid tenders was not valid, legal nor proper.
AG said law had been clearly been breached in awarding works under single bid tenders. Nanda noted that single tender was permissible in law, “but under very rare and exceptional circumstances, after recording a justification on file for this and pursuant to permission from the competent financial authority”.
