The Ministry of Urban Development is working on a proposal to reconstitute the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) on the lines of the Railway Board despite strong protest by employee unions.
The Ministry is going to appoint a consultant to examine study conducted for suggesting various options for enhancing the efficiency of the CPWD. The request for proposal was floated by the Ministry in the backdrop of recommendations by a group of secretaries, which suggested that corporatisation of the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) could be one of the options to improve its functioning.
The group of secretaries on MoUD has earlier suggested corporatisation of the CPWD. Another report suggests re-constitution of CPWD on the lines of Railway Board to improve its efficiency.
Top sources said that the consultant will also examine all possible options including constituting the CPWD into a separate Board on the lines of Railway Board or separate authority. “The Ministry after receiving expression of interest will commission a study to come out with recommendation on how to improve the efficiency of the Government’s main construction arm,” said the sources. “The Ministry would the report with an open objective of selecting the best option for improving the performance of CPWD,” the sources added.
There are over 35,000 employees in CPWD. The CPWD came into existence in July 1854 when lord Dalhousie established a central agency for execution of public works and set up Ajmer Provincial Division.
However, the Ministry’s proposal has not gone down well with the workers’ unions of the CPWD, which are up in arms, claiming that it was being done to find “out ways and means to corporatise” the department.
“The Ministry has made it clear to employees unions that it is open to all possibilities including corporatisation. In the Request For Proposal (RFP), corporatisation has been listed as only one of the several possibilities to enhance the efficiency of CPWD. The entire process would be transparent,” said officials of MoUD at a meeting with CPWD employees union. This was not the first time that a group of secretaries has recommended corporatisation of CPWD.
According to sources, if the Ministry agrees on the lines of Railway Board, then there would be a chairman and others would be members of the Board. Then there would be no interference from Ministry. “The Board would be capable to take decision by own itself,” said the sources.
PR Charan Babu, convener of Joint Front of CPWD employees union, said that they have no problem if CPWD is reconstituted on the lines of Railway Board.
The front had made a presentation to Urban Development Secretary Rajiv Gauba contending that the CPWD functions in high security domain of the Government such as construction and maintenance works of all security installations, including in border areas, and corporatisation could compromise the security of such assets. It said the organisation has a huge manpower shortage of engineers and widespread dissatisfaction among employees due to abysmal career prospects and emoluments.
“The group of secretaries had made recommendation to corporatise CPWD on the lines of National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC) purportedly on the basis of report in 2011 by High Powered Expert Committee constituted by MoUD in 2008. Any PSU works for profit making but the government department like CPWD works for public service. Being government CPWD levies no service charge whereas PSU levy about 5 to 10 percent of project cost as service charge which is ultimately results in burden on exchequer which can be better utilised in more public amenities,” said Babu while adding that they won’t oppose if the CPWD is reconstituted on the lines of separate Board or Authority.
Questioning the Government move, Babu said the government should talk to engineers of CPWD before any move in this regard.
A Parliamentary Standing Committee on Urban Development had stated that it has been found out that majority of the clients are not satisfied by the administration and output given by the Department which were proved when the Committee heard the representatives of RWAs and client Ministries. Certain steps were directed by this Committee to improve work atmosphere in Delhi so as to improve the satisfaction level of the clients.
“They note with anguish that neither the Ministry nor the CPWD has taken any concrete action to refurbrish the lost image of the CPWD. CPWD could have demonstrated this by some action taken in this regard.The Director-General is the highest authority in the CPWD and responsible for entire administration and management,” the committee had commented in its report three years ago.