Former PWD official threatens to sue accusers

SHILLONG, July 9: Former Executive Engineer of PWD (Buildings), Ransom Sutnga has threatened legal action if people continue to blame him without evidence for the alleged irregularities in the implementation of the new Assembly building.
The state government was embarrassed after the dome of the under-construction building had collapsed recently.
Sutnga said the charges were made against him with an intention to tarnish his image.
“Everyone has the right to avail information through RTI. But I strongly protest if people try to misinterpret RTI information. I appeal to the NGO friend to avoid spreading misinformation. I would not hesitate to take legal recourse if such things continue in the future,” Sutnga warned.
He was reacting to the allegations levelled by the Hynniewtrep Youth Council. It had blamed him for the irregularities based on RTI information.
He clarified that the Executive Engineer (EE) has no authority to enhance the tender cost because the EE’s financial power is only Rs 6 lakh according to financial rules.
“A technical and official procedure needs to be followed to revise the estimates. The office of the EE prepares only the revised estimates and submits the same to the office of the Chief Engineer for approval. After approving it, the Chief Engineer sends the proposal to the user department (Parliamentary Affairs department),” Sutnga said.
He said the departmental sanctioning committee, comprising PWD (Buildings), Planning and Assembly Secretariat, will deliberate and scrutinise the proposal to revise the estimates.
“It will then be sent to the Planning department and then, to the Finance department. The Finance department will accord sanction and send it to the Parliamentary Affairs department. Once we get the copy of the sanction, the Chief Engineer will advise the EE to do the needful,” the former EE (PWD Buildings) said explaining the procedures.
He clarified that the EE is not competent to ask for approval from the High-Powered Committee.
On the HYC’s demand for an independent probe, Sutnga said he had, from the outset, expressed the desire to have a third party inquiry into the dome’s collapse.
He said he was not the only one who was involved in the supervision of the project. The project is being supervised by a team comprising engineers and architects of PWD, engineers of Design Associates and the firm implementing it, he added.