Arappor Iyakkam, an anti-corruption forum, has accused Minister for Municipal Administration S.P. Velumani of committing irregularities and indulging in favouritism by awarding contracts to his relatives and close aides, causing a loss to the exchequer.
Alleging that the Minister’s relatives and close aides have bagged several high-value projects since Mr. Velumani became Minister in 2014, Arappor Iyakkam charged that government contracts in local bodies were given to five companies run by them.
The forum claimed these included 215 projects in the Chennai and Coimbatore Corporations during the sample period: between June 2014 and November 2015 and between January and May this year.
Addressing presspersons here on Wednesday, Jayaram Venkatesan, Convenor, Arappor Iyakkam, claimed that the tenders were worth nearly ₹450 crore and the loss to the exchequer due to violations would be a minimum of ₹100 crore.
Rules were relaxed and bid rigging was done to award contracts to these firms run by the Minister’s brother P. Anbarasan and his close aides — Rajan Chandrasekar, K. Chandraprakash, K. Sundari, Chandraprakash’s mother and J. Robert Raja — he accused.
KCP Engineers Private Ltd with Mr. Rajan Chandrasekar and Mr. K. Chandraprakash as shareholders; Varadhan Infrastructure in which Ms. K. Sundari and Vishnuvardhan are partners; Senthil and Co., a firm owned by P. Anbarasan, Mr. Velumani’s brother; Constronics India started by Mr. Vishnuvardhan and H. Karthik; and S.P. Builders are the firms that have been allegedly involved in tender violations.
Increased turnover
A probe revealed that the annual turnover of these companies increased drastically from 2014. For instance, the annual turnover of KCP Engineers, which was ₹100.20 crore in 2014, rose to ₹167.22 crore during the next fiscal.
Data collated through an RTI petition revealed that several tenders related to work such as solid waste management and road maintenance in Coimbatore Corporation had only two bidders: KCP Engineers and Mr. Robert Raja or KCP Engineers and Mr. Chandraprakash. “Most of these were related parties. Many of these contracts were awarded at rates which were 5% more than the scheduled rates,” Mr. Venkatesan said.
An analysis of the 131 tenders at Coimbatore Corporation between January 2015 and October 2015 alone revealed that 70% of the contracts were awarded to KCP Engineers. In Chennai Corporation, technical qualifications for the bidders were modified to favour a few bidders. Varadhan Infrastructure won nearly 88% of the total tenders for outsourcing medical personnel in urban primary health centres valued at ₹13.79 crore between January and May this year, he claimed.
The technical qualifications and financial eligibility rules were either relaxed or changed to restrain other bidders from participating in the tender. Tenders for the ‘bus route road projects’ too had only two bidders and KCP Engineers was the most favoured for the work. The Corporation Council passed a resolution in 2015 that said the same contractor could lay the roads that had suffered cuts due to other developmental works, instead of considering it as fresh tender, he said.
Pointing out that these were in violation of the Tamil Nadu Transparency in Tenders Act, 1998, Mr. Venkatesan sought action against the Minister and the companies under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
A complaint has also been sent to the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption.