Delhi Lieutenant-Governor (L-G) Vinai Kumar Saxena has sought a report from the Chief Secretary (CS) over a delay of more than 2.5 years in acting on a Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) report on a plaint on the construction of additional classrooms in Government schools. The report, which found gross irregularities and procedural lapses in execution of the projects, was sent by the CVC to the Vigilance Secretary in February 2020, seeking comments for further investigation and action.
“The L-G has taken a serious view of this inordinate delay that appears to be an obvious attempt at covering up gross malpractice pointing towards corruption, apart from violating relevant clauses of the CVC manual. The L-G Secretariat had received a complaint enclosing a copy of the CVC communication to the Directorate of Vigilance,” sources at the L-G’s office said.
The CVC report found financial irregularities in Government schools and suggested that there had been violation of provisions of General Financial Rules (GFR). Irregularities were observed in the preparation of extra ordinary repairs (EOR) indents and utilisation of funds in the construction works undertaken in Government schools to achieve student per class ratio equal to or less than 50.
The tender for works in 194 schools for additional classrooms was floated and the CVC had also suggested investigation into all 689 EOR indents in the schools.
The report further alleged that construction cost escalated by up to 90 per cent in the name of richer specifications without calling tender and the Delhi Government sanctioned cost escalation of Rs 500 crore without tender.
The CVC had received a complaint in July 2019 regarding irregularities and cost overruns in construction of additional classrooms in Government schools. Delhi BJP MLA Vijender Gupta, who had lodged the complaint demanded that corruption in construction of classrooms should be probed by the CBI and action taken against Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who is also the Education Minister.
As per report, the complete work of construction of classrooms in ‘Priority-1 project’ was split in 63 tenders. “Total initial sanction obtained from Delhi Government was Rs 939.26 crore for 7.180 ECRs under 15 proposals and total awarded value for all the 63 tenders was Rs 860.63 crore. After award of tender, additional sanction of Rs 66.67 crore was accorded for 308 classrooms plus other works,” the report stated.
“As finally constructed ECRs are only 7.137 against total 7.488 (7.180+308) ECRs to be constructed additionally sanctioned amount appeared not used for the purpose it was sanctioned. After submission of RPEs by PWD total amount already sanctioned and under process for sanction, for all works under Priority-1 became Rs 1.315.57 crore and out of this. Rs 1.173.68 crore was sanctioned (including all originally sanctioned estimates and 3 RPEs) by the Government while the remaining amount of Rs 141. 83 crore was under process for sanction,” the report stated.
“It is noted that original sanctioned amount of Rs 989.26 crore was revised to Rs 1,315.57 crore, an increase of Rs 326.25 crore and three of the RPEs were already sanctioned and rest were under process for sanction,” the report stated.
“Three additional sanctions of Rs 283 crore, Rs 5.18 crore and Rs 5.25 crore were accorded by Secretary/Education for additional classrooms in the schools where the work was already being done under some other contract. The value of original awards was Rs 11.80 crore, Rs 14 crore and Rs 12.65 crore.,” stated the report.
The CVC report also said that the cost escalated to the extent of Rs 326.25 crore, which is 53 per cent higher than the awarded amount of tender. This escalated cost was utilized for the construction of only 4027 classrooms against 6133 that were to be constructed.
“In 194 schools, 1214 toilets were constructed against the requirement of 160 toilets with extra expenditure of Rs 37 crore. Toilets were counted and projected as classrooms by Delhi Government. Only 4027 additional classrooms were constructed in 141 schools against assessed requirement of 6133 classrooms in 194 schools,” the report said.
“The average cost of each classroom comes to Rs. 33 lakh (approx). During inspection, only 2 Rainwater Harvesting Systems were found in place against the PWD’s claim of 29 Rainwater Harvesting Systems,” it said.