The Comptroller and Auditor General of India () has indicted the UP government for irregularities in the awarding of contracts for road construction in the state. The CAG said that contracts were given to many ineligible contractors. A CAG report was tabled in the UP Assembly on the last day of the Budget session on Thursday.
The report said that several irregularities were found during audit which included violation of norms of Notices Inviting Tenders (NIT) set up by the government itself.
On the performance audit on ‘Contract Management in Road Works’ ending on March 31, 2016, the report said that during test-check of records in 17 select districts, it was found that officials allowed ineligible contractors to participate in bidding process for getting contracts for 54 works amounting to Rs 94.88 crore.
It was also found that in order to prevent the mafia from entering the bidding process, the government in January,2007 ordered directed that the sale of bid documents would be done at offices of the executive engineer and DMs, in compliance of a High Court order.
The government later amended the rule and documents were sold from all branches of Punjab National Bank. The test check of 331 contact bonds in select districts revealed that for works amounting to Rs 1,136 crore it was not mentioned that the bid documents were sold through bank branches.
Besides, in 40 NITs worth Rs 621.04 crores, conditions relating to holding of pre-bid meeting was not mentioned though, the same was clearly stipulated in the standard NIT notified by the government.
Out of the 331 contract bonds test-checked by audit, in 62 contracts costing Rs 892.01 crores, number of key equipment required for road works was not mentioned in the bid document and the relevant column was left blank.
Similarly, number of technical personnel, their qualification and experience required for construction works was indicated insufficiently in 16 bid documents cost Rs 297.36 crores.
The other flaw detected by the CAG during its audit was that tenders were issued even before the official approval of the work.
The report said it was observed that out of 170 test-checked works costing Rs 4,789 crores, in 96 works worth Rs 3071.45 crores, tenders were issued by departmental officials before obtaining administrative approval.
The report further said that out of the 170 works, NITs for 156 works or 92 per cent costing Rs 4184.74 crores were invited by the Superintendent Engineers before obtaining technical sanction of detailed estimates. Similarly, Executive Engineers also invited NITs for 103 works costing Rs 33.86 crores before technical sanction of detailed estimates.
The CAG also found anomalies in publication of tenders in newspapers. While Information and Public Relation department of UP informed in August, 2016, that NITs were published in 873 newspapers, but during audit it was observed that in 802 contract bonds examined in audit, news clippings of only five newspapers were found enclosed with contract bonds constituted by divisions in test-checked districts.
