Lieutenant-Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena on Friday directed the Chief Secretary to prepare a report over a delay of more than two years by the Delhi government’s Vigilance Department in taking action on a report that highlighted “gross irregularities and procedural lapses” worth crores in the construction of additional classrooms in government schools.
Sources said several irregularities, which include counting toilets as classrooms to inflate figures related to school infrastructure, were flagged by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) in its 2020 inquiry report.
The report was sent by the CVC to the secretary of the Delhi Vigilance Department on February 17, 2020, seeking comments for further investigation and action, sources said.
“The L-G has taken a serious view of this inordinate delay that appears to be an obvious attempt at covering up gross malpractices pointing towards corruption, apart from violating the relevant clauses of the CVC manual,” a source said, adding that the step was taken after the L-G Secretariat received the complaint, based on which the CVC had prepared its report.
The CVC report titled “Additional Classrooms Constructed in Delhi Government Schools by PWD” was a result of a complaint filed in 2019, alleging irregularities and cost overruns in the construction of additional classrooms in Delhi government schools, the source said.
CVC report
According to the findings of the CVC report, dated February 17, 2020, the awarded contract value in several cases “varied from 17% to 90% on account of the introduction of richer specifications, service tax requirement of deeper foundation, increase in plinth area,” among other reasons.
The CVC in its report had stated that in 194 schools “1,214 toilets were constructed against the requirement of 160 toilets with an extra expenditure of approximately ₹37 crore. Moreover, some toilets were counted and projected as classrooms by the Delhi government,” according to sources.
According to the report, with only 4,027 additional classrooms being constructed in 141 schools against the assessed requirement of 6,133 classrooms in 194 schools, the average cost of each classroom came to approximately ₹33 lakh, sources added.
During an inspection by the CVC, only two rainwater harvesting systems were found installed against the PWD’s claim of 29; the sanctioned amount for these projects was ₹989.26 crore.
The total award value of all the tenders was ₹860.63 crores, however, the actual expenditure went up to ₹1315.57 crore, the source added.
The background
The Delhi government decided to spruce up its schools after the Directorate of Education (DoE), on April 30, 2015, made a presentation to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who also holds the PWD portfolio, regarding the issue.
In 207 schools, according to the presentation, the student-classroom ratio was found to be more than 50, which led to the decision to construct 2,526 additional classrooms, the source said.
