Small contractors rue ‘raw deal’ in AMRUT contracts

Tribune News Service

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Chandigarh, September 30

The Anti-Corruption Forum of Haryana, a Karnal-based NGO, has alleged allotment of works under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) to certain big contractors and a raw deal to small and medium contractors.

In a memorandum to Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, the forum alleged that the Urban Local Bodies (ULB) Department had been allotting the works to a select few at “inflated” rates which were higher than rates being sanctioned by the Public Health Engineering (PHE) Department for equivalent projects.

The memorandum alleged that smaller detailed notice inviting tenders (DNITs) were being consolidated into one or two DNITs with financial pre-qualifications which eliminated local and small contractors.

This left the field open only for big contractors, who then quoted inflated rates to bag contracts, resulting in huge losses to the state exchequer, it alleged.

The memorandum mentioned that the ULB Department had deviated from the effective process of work execution carried out by the nodal department, the PHE Department.

The PHE Department, in order to achieve faster and economical execution of water supply and sewerage projects, had adopted a small package approach, wherein DNITs of smaller value were floated which qualified local and small contractors, it pointed out.

However, the ULB Department had adopted a reverse approach, wherein only large DNITs were being formulated to qualify only a few big contractors, the memorandum alleged.

It sought the Chief Minister’s intervention and introduction of the system adopted by the PHE Department so that small and medium contractors could be become eligible to bid for contracts under AMRUT.