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BENGALURU: Amidst allegations of irregularities in awarding works to contractors, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report on “Planning and Contract Management of Road Works” in the Public Works Department (PWD) pointed to large-scale malpractice between 2016 and 2021 in the department. Interestingly, during the period, all the three major parties -- Congress, Janata Dal (Secular) and BJP -- were in power.
The performance audit was conducted covering the financial years 2016-17 to 2020-21. The CAG report, which was tabled in the Assembly on Wednesday, stated that tender-inviting authorities stipulated higher specifications of machinery and invited tenders from the higher class of contractors than required for the works.
It said there was no database of contractors to verify the bid capacity. “... The department either allowed ineligible contractors to participate or restricted eligible contractors from participating and thereby limiting competition,” it stated.
Of the 499 works awarded during the period, 131 had just single bidders and 242 projects had two bidders. The total worth of works was Rs 2,738.86 crore of the entire Rs 3,583 crore of projects taken up during these years. Of the 131 works with just single bidders, contractors quoted 11 per cent to 32 per cent higher than the Tender Statement of Compliance rate.
“This is a violation of Karnataka PWD Code that says in case of single bid, suspected collusion, or where the lowest evaluated responsive bid is substantially above the estimated cost, in such cases, the first choice is for rejection of all tenders and re-inviting fresh tenders,” the CAG said.
Many contractors violated norms: Report
The CAG recommended to the state government to include necessary provisions under the KPWD code to initiate disciplinary action against tender-accepting authorities for approving bids with single bidders in violation of government rules.
As per the Indian Road Congress guidelines, field labs should be set up for quality test, but many contractors violated these norms, the report said. PWD released Rs 1,480 crore to contractors in 333 instances to set up field labs, but contractors did not, and they also failed to include quality control test reports with the bills. The department could have penalised the contractors before clearing the bills, it stated. The CAG recommended to the government to issue orders to fix responsibilities on officers for making payment without quality control test reports.
