Amid allegations of commission in public works by the Contractors’ Association, the Cabinet decision to appoint a retired High Court judge to head a pre-tender scrutiny committee to scrutinise goods and services procured above ₹50 crore for public purposes is still hanging fire even after four months of the Government issuing the order.
While the appointment is yet to happen though the GO was issued on December 13, 2021, sources in Public Works Department and Water Resources Department indicated that the new committee will only add to another layer to the already existing layers. More than a dozen departments/agencies are implementing civil works across the State with at least ₹40,000 crore allocated outlay in the budget annually.
Sources said that each of the four corporations in the Water Resources Department, which receives close to ₹20,000 crore of annual allocation, have Estimate Review Committee, Technical Scrutiny Committee, Technical Advisory Committee- all headed by retired Engineer-in-Chief or retired Chief Engineers and the Chief Minister - headed Major Irrigation Board. The Technical Advisory Committee, Estimate Review Committee and Commissionarate of Tender are currently functioning in PWD. In departments such as RDPR and Minor Irrigation where such mechanisms are not available, any work above ₹3 crore is to be cleared by the Cabinet, sources said, adding that PWD and Minor Irrigation Department have multiple divisions.
Under the current procedures laid down in the GO, the pre-tender scrutiny committee — after the document is accepted from the Tender Accepting Authority (TAC) — will publish the documents in the Karnataka Public Procurement Portal for seven days and invite suggestions from the public. The tenders and estimates are then scrutinised, suggestions received from the public are consolidated and give its recommendation to the TAC within 30 days of receiving the documents. In case recommendations cannot be accepted, the TAC has to communicate in writing the reasons for the same.
“Not only are there multiple layers, but scrutiny of a large number of tenders by a retired judge with the assistance of two members is only going to cause delay due to centralisation and laid down procedures,” another source said.
The biggest problem, the source said, could be when the tenders are split to bring down the size to below ₹50 crore to escape the scrutiny. “Already to circumvent the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurement Act, tender is being split. The same would continue.”
