A day after Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai issued instructions, Chief Secretary P. Ravi Kumar on Friday wrote to additional secretaries and principal secretaries of departments to conduct scrutiny and a detailed inquiry wherever irregularities are noticed in tendering of works.
In his letter to the heads of departments, Mr. Ravi Kumar said Mr. Bommai had instructed to conduct inquiry on complaints of irregularities noticed in the tendering process and payment of bills above ₹10 crore after he assumed office.
On July 4, the Karnataka State Contractors’ Association had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleging that contractors in the State were forced to pay a bribe of up to 40% of the project cost to government officers and elected representatives to get their dues cleared in departments such as Public Works, Major and Minor Irrigation, and Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Engineering, and the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike.
The Chief Secretary cited, in his order, a letter from Mr. Bommai which stated that scrutiny should be conducted into major works undertaken and stressed the need for time-bound clearances and approvals of contracts to ensure transparency. The Chief Minister’s letter to the CS also said that a system should be created by which electronic submission of bills are made directly by the executive engineer to the accounts section which automatically generates bill number.
