Action against engg staff for Palayam market work lapses

Thiruvananthapuram: The local self-government department (LSGD) has taken disciplinary action against two officials with the engineering wing after CAG audit reported irregularities in the construction of modern fish market at Palayam. The LSGD has barred annual increment of assistant executive engineer J Anzar for a year and that of assistant engineer S Suma for two years. The order issued by the department noted that although the officials had received the show cause notice they have not submitted a reply.
The department proceeded with disciplinary action under the assumption that since the officials failed to furnish a reply in a time bound manner, they had nothing more to justify regarding the irregularities. The department also noted in the order that considering the prestigious nature of the work at Palayam market and how it attracted public attention, the contentions raised by the officials in their written statement of defence were unsatisfactory.
The CAG report pointed out lapses on the part of the corporation while constructing an improved fish market at Palayam. According to the audit report, the market was constructed without proper investigation and without co-relating the design with the requirements of the vendors. This resulted in non-utilisation of the modern fish market which was constructed spending Rs 23 lakhs.
Even the basic aspects like seating facility and vending space were compromised and in the end there was not sufficient width between the tables and the space was insufficient for seating arrangement.
While revising the estimate, the corporation had deleted essential items such as plumbing works, water supply, etc, and included non-essential items like replacing ceramic with vitrified tiles for floor, changing the surface of fish vending table from kota stone to mirror finished marble stone, etc. This led to a situation where the fish market was completed without provision for drainage, water, etc, which was essential for normal hygienic operations and maintenance of the fish market, the report said.
It also flagged the lapses on the part of the executive engineer who, according to the audit report, failed to verify the actual work done before effecting the payment and resulted in an overpayment of Rs 4.11 lakh to the contractor. The audit findings were confirmed by the state government and it was found that the estimate was technically defective. The contractor had refunded an amount of Rs 3.61 lakh in 2018 following the direction of the state government to the city corporation.
The vigilance and anti-corruption bureau had done a surprise check in the engineering wing of the city corporation in 2019 to conduct an inquiry based on the draft note in the CAG report.