Tailor- made documents :Award more than project cost :Payment manipulation
SHILLONG: The Opposition has alleged corruption in the implementation of a central electricity project executed by the NPP-led government.
Congress MLA and former Chief Minister Mukul Sangma termed the Saubhagya scheme as a model item for political bosses and officials to loot the state and alleged corruption in its implementation.
The Saubhagya scheme is a central project to provide electricity to all households.
Addressing reporters here on Tuesday, Sangma alleged that the Saubhagya scheme has resulted in a big scam because of the deep criminal conspiracy of all the people involved with the government.
Pre-determined contractors
He said the scam has pushed the state into a deep crisis starting with the manipulation of bidding documents to favouring pre-determined identified contractors.
He also alleged that the award of contract is more than 50 per cent of the total estimated project cost while there are many projects under other programmes that are in the process of implementation with the same rate.
He spoke of deep corrupt practices happening in the government particularly in the Power Department resulting in a mess.
He said, “The MeECL is not in a position to take care of its own financial requirement. The first controversy is that the terms and conditions in the bidding documents were manipulated and designed to ensure that they can favour pre-identified bidders.”
He asserted that there has been a public discussion expressing concern over the fiscal health of the state, the capacity of the state to fund various programmes initiated by the government and its capacity to respond to the expectations and aspirations of the people including paying the pending bills of the contractors who are implementing various programmes of the government. “Contractors are not encouraged by the development,” he said. Again, pointing to another anomaly, Sangma said since there are limited bidders qualifying for the project, they can manipulate the total cost of the project.
Award more than 50 pc of project cost
“The award of contract for the project is more than 50 per cent of the total estimated project cost while there are other projects under other programmes that are in the process of implementation with the same rate,” he said.
He informed that the tender value was Rs 1 73, 60, 00, 000 and the allotted amount was Rs 2 55, 58, 89, 424 for package A (Khasi and Jaintia Hills). For Package B (Garo Hills) the tender value was Rs 179 crore and the allotted amount was Rs 270,37,84,681.
He said the work has been awarded and implemented so promptly despite the actual financial bid indicating an escalation of more than 50 per cent.
“The state is being looted from its limited resources. The state is under threat because of the continuous loot that is happening. It is not just officers but political bosses who are hand-in-glove in the criminal conspiracy,” he said.
Manipulation in payment
Sangma said there had been manipulation in the process of payment.
“For the first time in the history of Meghalaya, the CMD of MeECL has sent a letter to the concerned officer at the lowest level which is the level of Sub-Divisional Officer to prepare a bill and submit directly to the Chief Engineer of MeECL Distribution and pass the bill without allowing it to go through the normal process of scrutiny at different levels.”
Referring to the blatant corrupt practices, he said that it has been proven beyond reasonable doubt that there has been a collective effort by greedy people in power to engage in criminal conspiracy.
No matching share
“Though sponsored by the Government of India, it is a scheme required to be implemented with a matching share by the state government. Where is that matching share going to come from? It is going to come from the limited coffers,” he remarked.
Sangma recalled that when the “manipulative tender” was on, there was an aggrieved party who approached the High Court but after a certain period of time the petitioner withdrew the petition.
He questioned whether the petitioner was influenced to withdraw asserting that there have been instances of out-of-court settlement.
The petitioner had alleged that the whole bidding document was manipulated to favour particular contractors and in this connection, the MeECL was made to file affidavit after affidavit.
Though MeECL wanted to correct the anomalies, he said then CMD PS Thangkhiew was removed overnight and the officer who succeeded him was also removed.
When asked, Sangma said, “Will take recourse to all prevailing measures mandated under law to stop them from looting further.”
He asserted that corrupt practices of political bosses and officials will result in looting the state of its scarce resources.