In an attempt to bring a thaw in the frosty relations between contractors and the State Government over allegations of “40% kickback”, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai met contractors on Monday and promised to streamline tendering and payment processes to root out corruption.
While the contractors welcomed the initiative, they said they have not shelved their plans to launch a protest against rising corruption in contracts. “The Chief Minister has responded well to the concerns we have raised and has promised a slew of actions. We will wait and see. The association’s executive committee meeting is scheduled to be held on May 11, when we will take a call on the next course of action,” said D. Kempanna, president, Karnataka State Contractors’ Association. On April 13, the association set a 15-day deadline for the State Government to respond and solve the issues they raised. Failing which, they had threatened to stop work for a month and release proof of corruption against 5-6 Ministers, 20-25 MLAs if their demands to curb corruption were not met.
Responding to concerns over rising kickbacks in State contracts, Mr. Bommai reportedly promised to put a software in place to ensure bill payments are done as per seniority and a committee led by a retired High Court judge to scrutinize contracts will streamline the process, hopefully reducing corruption. The tender scrutinisation committee will scrutinise all tenders above ₹50 crore, it is presently proposed. Contractors lobbied for that to be reduced to ₹5 crore, which Mr. Bommai denied, sources said. However, he promised the cut off and would take a call on it in the next three days, contractors said. Mr. Bommai also promised to curtail the practice of packaging contracts together, which contractors argue promotes monopoly.
“He sought cooperation from us to streamline the processes, bring in transparency and reducing corruption. We have promised to do so,” Mr. Kempanna said. The Chief Minister is also learnt to have assured contractors that the Government will start clearing pending bills, providing relief to contractors. The pending bills have climbed up to unprecedented levels — over ₹25,000 crore and no bills have been cleared since 2020.
