The Hindu         04.09.2014  

South civic body to buy heavy machinery worth crores despite alleged irregularities

Two proposals to buy heavy machinery were cleared on
Wednesday by the BJP-led South Delhi Municipal Corporation’s Standing
Committee, despite the party’s own councillors alleging irregularities
and the Finance Department questioning the plans.

Standing
Committee chairperson Satish Upadhyay pushed through dissent from his
own party to pass a Rs.5.09-crore proposal to buy 30 front-end loaders
for the Department of Environment Management Services.

“This
needs to be passed now,” said Mr. Upadhyay, referring to the proposal
that was first approved by the Corporation in June 2013. With
Wednesday’s clearance, the contract will be awarded to JCB India. This
is the third tender for this proposal.

According to
the proposal, the first tenders were called in May 2013 and seven firms
applied for the same. However, the terms were modified and a new tender
was called in which two bidders – JCB India and ACE Ltd. – qualified.

But
on January 1 this year the tender was again cancelled. A third tender
was called on January 24 and three companies applied. Again, JCB India
was the only bidder that qualified as per technical conditions.

The
tender process may be surrounded in confusion, but councillors and
officials have poked holes in the proposal itself. The Finance
Department said the Engineering Department should have included annual
maintenance contracts in the tender, which have been left out.

One
of the other bidders had questioned the neutrality of the tender, which
were not addressed by the Engineering Department. ACE Ltd. had alleged
that the department’s specifications are not vendor-neutral.

BJP
councillor from Vasant Vihar Radhey Shyam Sharma as well as Leader of
the Opposition Farhad Suri objected to the proposal. Chief
Accountant-cum-Financial Advisor Rajesh Pathak said: “We are not
satisfied with the department’s replies to our concerns.”

However, the proposal was passed.

A
Rs.24.11-crore plan to buy eight suction and suction-cum-jetting
machines each was also cleared despite protests from the Congress
councillors. The same proposal had first been approved in June 2013 and
at that time the machines would have cost Rs.13.42 crore – that is
approximately Rs.10 crore less. Engineer-in-chief Ravi Das said the
capital cost had not gone up.

“We have not got the
details as how to the price increased so much in one year,” clarified
the CA-cum-FA. But, again, the Standing Committee cleared the proposal
on Wednesday. Mr. Suri said he would write to Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb
Jung to demand a CBI inquiry into the two contracts.

Neutrality of tenders questioned; Leader of Opposition demands CBI probe