The Central Vigilance Commission has asked the CBI to register a corruption case against certain Municipal Corporation of Delhi officials in connection with irregularities in a tender issued for a Commonwealth Games project worth several crores.
Official sources said a letter of complaint has been sent to CBI asking for a probe into alleged criminal conspiracy by unknown MCD officials while granting work for upgradation of street lighting in the national capital.
They said the contractor who had got the job after quoting the lowest amount for the project was later allegedly allowed to change the figures to earn more profit.
However, the exact amount of profits made by the contractor could not be ascertained but officials believe it may run up to Rs. 20 crore.
The CVC has found serious discrepancies like award of works at higher rates to bidders, poor quality of construction and grant of work to ineligible agencies in different Games-related construction works being carried out by various departments in the capital.
As per the assessment report prepared by CVC’s Chief Technical Examination Wing, large-scale procedural violations, including corruption, have been noticed in 16 projects.
The cost of the projects have been estimated to be about Rs. 2,000 crore.
Six of them are being done by Public Works Department (PWD), three by Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), two each by Central Public Works Department (CPWD), Delhi Development Authority (DDA), New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) and one by RITES, a Government of India enterprise, the report said.
The CTE Wing has made the assessment of construction projects following complaint of alleged corruption in them.
The CVC has asked Chief Vigilance Officers to re-examine all the tenders and procurement process related to the projects.
According to the report, “Almost all the organisations executing works for Commonwealth Games have considered inadmissible factors to jack-up the reasonable price to justify award of work at quoted rates citing urgent or emergent circumstances. Despite higher rates, poor site management and delays and quality compromises have been observed.”
