By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Sep 22: The Saubhagya ‘scam’ seems to have returned to haunt the NPP-led MDA government riding a Comptroller and Auditor General report.
The CAG report, tabled in the House on Friday, said undue financial benefits were given to contractors under the Saubhagya and Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana. The observation is contrary to the clean chit an inquiry committee had given the state government on the alleged scams.
The CAG observed that the reimbursement of insurance charges without obtaining documentary evidence in support thereof, resulted in an undue financial benefit of Rs 1.96 crore to turnkey contractors (TKCs) under the DDUGJY and Saubhagya schemes.
To implement DDUGJY and Saubhagya, the MePDCL issued 22 letters of award (LoAs) under the TKCs. The conditions of payment against insurance charges for work completed under the two schemes were clearly stipulated in the terms and conditions of the LoAs.
The LoAs said the payment against the supply of materials would be on submission of specified documents while payment against insurance charges would be released on presenting a certified copy of the insurance policy or certificate.
Further, clause 30.1 of the general conditions of the contract said the contractor should take a joint insurance policy in the names of the employer and the contractor.
According to the conditions, the cost of the insurance premium was to be reimbursed to the contractor on submission of documentary evidence for the premium paid. It was also stipulated that the contractor should obtain competitive quotations for such insurance and get prior approval from the employer before taking the insurance.
Scrutiny of the records of MePDCL showed that during the period from June 2017 to January 2021, the company spent a total of Rs 616.89 crore under the two schemes. The expenditure included the reimbursement of Rs 1.97 crore towards insurance charges.
However, the audit revealed that against these payments, a certified copy of the insurance policy amounting to Rs 58,252 was submitted by the TKCs of DDUGJY. Documentary evidence sought for the remaining reimbursement of Rs 1.96 crore was neither available nor furnished for audit.
From the available insurance policy documents, it was noticed that no joint insurance policy was made and prior approval from the MePDCL for an insurance policy as stipulated in the bidding documents was not sought.
“The above indicates that the reimbursement of insurances was made without any documentary evidence in support of the supplies being insured from the TKCs of DDUGJY and Saubhagya,” the report said.
While accepting the audit observation, the CE (Projects) of MePDCL stated that the TKCs of DDUGJY have been intimated to submit copies of insurance documents, which are yet to be received.
Similarly, in respect of Saubhagya, the Meghalaya government said letters were issued to two TKCs (Satnam Global Infraprojects Limited and Onycon Enterprise Limited) to submit the original insurance policy or insurance certificate to substantiate the amount already paid towards insurance charges within a month.
In another observation, the CAG noted that the state government initially planned to award the Saubhagya contract to the TKCs at rates fixed by the department. However, on September 10, 2018, the government issued two tenders splitting the contract into two packages — A for Khasi-Jaintia Hills and B for Garo Hills.
M/s Satnam Global Infra Projects Limited submitted a quotation of Rs 269.04 crore as against the estimate of Rs 173.60 crore for package A while M/s Onycon Enterprise quoted Rs 283.82 crore.
For package B, Satnam quoted a rate of Rs 325.11 crore while Onycon quoted Rs 284.61 crore against the estimate of Rs 179 crore.
Later, the two contractors agreed to reduce their bid values by 5% which was accepted by MePDCL.
The contract for package A was awarded to Satnam for Rs 260.04 crore (on February 25, 2019) while package B was awarded to Onycon for Rs 275.66 crore (on March 5, 2019).
The CAG observed that if the contracts had been executed at rates fixed by the department the total expenditure would have come to Rs 365.12 crore for supply component and erection component. However, the total payment made to the two contractors was Rs 521.26 crore, which resulted in avoidable expenditure of Rs 156.14 crore, the report added.