The New Indian Express 07.10.2010
BBMP owes Rs 6,000 cr for bogus works
BANGALORE: The city corporation owes Rs 6,000 crore to the contractors for works that were taken up in gross violation of the rules over the past two years.An official in the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) disclosed this on the condition of anonymity.
The official said works worth Rs 3,500 crore were over and above the budget outlay for the respective years.
The official mentioned some of the irregularities: works were passed without the commissioner's approval or the council's sanction; some works allotted through secret tendering; some works were allotted without calling tenders; many works taken up only on paper.
The official said there were cases wherein work was allotted to lay roads where Metro work was going on.
In many of the disputed tenders, details of the works was not mentioned. The tender included just the number of works to be taken up in an area. To add to it, the work allotted was more than that mentioned in the tender.
Loopholes exploited
"It is difficult to find out the details of the work on the areas to which they were sanctioned," the BBMP official said. "The executive engineers have made use of the loopholes of these system to their advantage and to favour their preferred contractors."
Irregularities were found in the works taken up in Gandhinagar, Malleswaram, Rajarajeswari Nagar, Dasarahalli, Yelahanka, Govindrajanagar, Shantinagar and K R Puram.
Sources in BBMP said the administrator, who was in charge of the BBMP before the council was elected, had refused to approve these works.
Siddaiah orders inquiry
Sources said BBMP Commissioner Siddaiah had recently ordered an inquiry into these irregularities.
The sources said Siddaiah had sought details of such projects. This includes approval of the works, who has approved the work, its current status and money spent on it.
Also, the commissioner has directed executive engineers to stop using the work code system they have been using till now and use the system the public works department uses.
