The Justice Nagamohan Das Fee, which probed allegations of “40 per cent fee” levelled by the Karnataka State Contractors’ Affiliation throughout BJP rule, has discovered that the claims “may not be 100 per cent true” however mentioned the “delay, violation of legal guidelines and nepotism earlier than and after the tender course of prima facie point out corruption”.
The fee additionally flagged a 300 per cent improve in tenders floated in 2022-23, the ultimate yr of the BJP authorities, in addition to irregularities in works and tenders invited by 5 departments.
Justice Das submitted his report back to the Congress authorities on March 5. Indianexpress.com has accessed a synopsis of the fee’s 20,000-page report.
“The allegations made by the contractors’ affiliation may not be one hundred percent true. The Affiliation which made the allegations may need did not show the allegations. They could have been cautious and anxious of being victimised. Nevertheless, when public complaints had been probed, the delay, violation of legal guidelines and nepotism earlier than and after the tender course of, prima facie point out corruption,” the fee mentioned within the report.
Final week, the federal government arrange a Particular Investigation Workforce to probe the irregularities highlighted within the mammoth report.
The one-man fee was arrange in August 2023 to probe the kickback expenses and irregularities in work carried out by the departments of public works, water sources, city growth, rural growth and panchayat raj, and minor irrigation. The fee scrutinised tasks taken up between July 26, 2019, and March 31, 2023. Throughout the interval, 4.7 lakh works had been carried out and three.32 works of them accomplished and the fee chosen 1,719 works for its report.
Amongst its key findings was the huge spike in tenders within the 2022-23 fiscal, following which the BJP misplaced energy to the Congress. The fee famous whereas the full price of tenders invited within the 5 departments probed was price Rs 49,474 crore within the 2021-fiscal, it elevated to 1,54,554 crore within the 2022-23 fiscal, “which was round 300 per cent extra”.
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The fee additionally discovered that 8 per cent of the works had been carried out with out administrative approval, tender course of was not adopted appropriately in 14 per cent of the tasks, 10 per cent of the works didn’t keep established high quality requirements, 13 per cent of the works had irregularities in invoice deductions, safety deposits weren’t launched on time in 17 per cent of the works, and seniority was not adopted in clearing payments and funds weren’t made beneath right account heads in 23 per cent of the works assessed.
Within the MGNREGS, 12-14 per cent of the works had been carried out with out an motion plan, administrative approval and technical approval, the fee mentioned. Its report has additionally flagged main irregularities in all works exceeding Rs 50 lakh assessed by it. Additionally, opposite to norms, solely 1-6 per cent of the tenders awarded had been uploaded on the state governments’ e-procurement portal.
Based mostly on its evaluation, the fee made a number of suggestions, prime amongst which was to make sure that detailed undertaking reviews ready by non-public corporations ought to bear scrutiny at completely different ranges by authorities officers. “If the price of a undertaking has a variation exceeding 15 per cent of the DPR, then the non-public firm that ready the DPR must be blacklisted,” the fee mentioned.
The fee additionally suggested the federal government to make sure that the payments of works carried out are cleared compulsorily inside 60 days because it discovered that round 40 per cent of the payments for works accomplished took as much as two years to be cleared. The defect legal responsibility interval must be set to 3 years, in order that any shortcomings within the tasks are addressed by the contractor themselves, Justice Das really useful.
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The “40 per cent fee” allegations had rocked the state throughout BJP rule, permitting Congress to make it a marketing campaign difficulty within the elections.
Irregularities flagged by Justice Das Fee
8% – works carried out with out administrative approval
14% – works had been tender course of not adopted appropriately
10% – works didn’t keep established high quality requirements
13% – works that had irregularities in invoice deductions
17% – works the place safety deposits weren’t launched on time
23% – works had been seniority was not adopted in clearing payments and funds not made beneath right account heads