The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation assigned road contracts worth ₹99.30 crore to existing contractors without inviting tenders, the office of Principal Accountant General has observed in its Annual Technical Inspection Report on local bodies.
The report said that the contracts were awarded with the approval of the Additional Municipal Commissioner either on grounds of urgency or without justification during 2011-16. The report said, “It was pertinent to note that in three contracts, 16 of the 29 works, ranged between 50% and 153% of the cost of original work. Therefore, awarding additional works outside the scope of the original works without proper justification was not only in violation of MMC Act/and directives of MCGM, but also gave unfair benefit to the contractors.”
Lowest bidder ignored
The report criticised the BMC for not awarding road contracts to the lowest bidder. The Central Vigilance Commission’s guidelines state that works are to be awarded only to the L1 bidder. The report said, “In awarding road works for construction and maintenance works, there were instances of works being awarded to other than the lowest bidder based on a policy of awarding only one or two contracts to a single bidder, which not only violated CVC guidelines but also was not financially beneficial to the corporation.”
The report has also questioned the work of the Planning Cell in the BMC’s Roads and Traffic Department. “The Planning Cell in the Department, which became functional only in November 2012, did not do planning work that was envisaged and empanelled various consultants for the works.”
The report has recommended that a plan be chalked out to minimise dependency on private consultants in all stages of road works, including preparation of estimates.
The audit report said the BMC’s Live Work application system, which provides accurate location for monitoring road development works to a developer, was not utilised for quality control.
The report said, “The quantity of material brought to site and recorded in the system was not co-related with the quantity recorded in the Measurement Book and RA bills before approving payments as seen from the 29 test checked works during audit. Thus the objective of Live Work application system for monitoring and control of road works was not attained.”
The report has also questioned the quality of pothole filling works. It said, “Quality of pothole works executed was doubtful since pre-mix Dense Bituminous Macadam procured from the plant for these works was not laid within the stipulated time as per specifications.”
The report said internal controls on ensuring quality of works and monitoring aspects was deficient as engineering staff did not carry out the requisite percentage checks on the works.
