VMC not to clear bills without approvals from senior officials

Vadodara: Wary of recent incidents of substandard work coming to light, Vadodara Municipal (VMC) has decided to put checks and balances in the system of clearing bills. The civic body has decided that it will clear bills only after a nod from the head of the department for which work has been done.
The VMC takes up works worth hundreds of crores throughout the year for creating new infrastructure as well as operating, maintaining or sprucing up existing ones. The bills for such works are prepared either at the project level in VMC headquarters or at zonal level if the works are small in nature.
The bills for several works are cleared by executive engineers at their level and sent to accounts or audit department. The contractor is then issued payments by these department.
To ensure that no irregularities take place in the contracts and the bills are double checked, the VMC has issued a circular stating that now the heads of the departments of various works who are usually officials of the level of in-charge city engineer or in-charge additional city engineer will clear the bills. The decision coincides with the row regarding supply of turbid and coloured water from Nimeta and the shoddy work done on urban poor housing.