A few select firms win all civic contracts

CHENNAI: The civic bodies of Chennai and Coimbatore have been systematically awarding contracts worth several crores to just a few contractors through questionable means, says Arappor Iyakkam, a nonprofit and anti-corruption outfit, which filed a complaint with the directorate of vigilance and anti-corruption (DVAC) on Wednesday.

In Coimbatore corporation, only five entities — KCP Engineers Private Limited, Vardhan Infrastructure, Constronics India, P Senthil & Co and Robert Raja — were involved in bidding for more than 130 contracts worth Rs 53 crore in 2015. Another company — S P Builders — which took part in all these tenders, failed in every bid.

As per the petition of the NGO, in Chennai corporation too KCP Engineers Private Limited and Vardhan Infrastructure won several contracts for supplying manpower to urban primary health centres with the help of authorities who tweaked the tender rules to restrict bidding eligibility to just these two companies.

The suspected irregularities were unearthed after an analysis of 635 pages of tender records issued by both the corporations for works under solid waste management, storm water drain maintenance, road maintenance, and supplying manpower, said Jayaram Venkatesan, convenor, Arappor Iyakkam. Between June 2014 and June 2015 in Coimbatore corporation, in 19 tenders awarded for a value of Rs 6.5 crore, the bidders were either KCP Engineers Private Limited and Robert Raja or KCP Engineers Private Limited and K Chandraprakash. Documents in possession of TOI show that K Chandraprakash is the owner of KCP and Raja is a shareholder of the same company.

In the same period, 38 more tenders worth Rs 7.27 crore featured either KCP engineer private limited and Vardhaan Infrastructure or KCP Engineers Private Limited and K Chandraprakash.

RIVAL BIDDERS ARE FROM SAME FAMILY

Rival bidders KCP and Vardhan are, interestingly, owned by members of the same family. While Chandraprakash is the MD of KCP, his mother Sundari is the registered owner of Vardhan. In Chennai Corporation also, the same modus operandi was adopted.

This year, a total of 9 tenders were floated to outsource medical officers, staff

Vardhan bagged 7 of nine govt tenders worth Rs 12.2cr

nurses, data entry operators, office assistants and other staff in Chennai corporation. Of them, seven tenders worth Rs12.2 crore, which constituted 88% of the total tender value, had been awarded to Vardhan.

As per Tamil Nadu Transparency in Tenders (Public Private Partnership Procurement) Rules, 2012, this is clear conflict of interest.

The rule states: ‘An applicant or prospective tenderer shall be deemed to have a conflict if any other prospective tenderer or a member of the consortium or any associate or constituent thereof have common controlling shareholders or other ownership interest. Also, if the prospective tenderer, its member or any associate has a relationship with another prospective tenderer or any associate directly or through common third parties that puts either or both in a position to have access to each other’s information.’ When contacted, Chennai corporation commissioner D Karthikeyan said, “I will inquire.” The Coimbatore corporation commissioner, K Vijayakarthikeyan said the documents were in public domain for everyone to verify. “I will look into this,” he said. The company owners of KCP engineers private limited and Vardhan Infrastructure declined to respond to calls from TOI.