BBMP freezes 50,000 illegal civic works' codes worth Rs 8,000 crore

BBMP allows job codes to remain active for only two years, but some officials and political leaders get them reactivated

Cracking down on job codes, the BBMP has frozen nearly 50,000 job codes issued between 2010 and 2017 corresponding to works worth nearly Rs 8,000 crore.

Though the Bruhat bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) allows job codes to remain active for only two years, sources said some officials and political leaders get them reactivated.

“These codes have become commodities that could be traded,” a senior BBMP official said. “Officials would reserve job codes by giving vague definitions of the work. Once obtained, they would neither undertake the work nor deactivate the code. The malpractice has allowed over 50,000 job codes to accumulate in the system amounting to nearly Rs 7,000 crore to Rs 8,000 crore worth of works.”

Last month, the BBMP special commissioner (finance) issued an order asking zonal and ward-level officials to submit files related to job codes, warning that the codes would be frozen if they fail.

“In a few exceptional cases, the work order may not have been uploaded online or the contractor may not have been able to submit the billing details. Hence, we gave them 10 days to submit the documents related to these job codes. We will verify all the files and freeze the job codes for which no documents are submitted,” the official said.

Though the deadline to submit the documents has ended, BBMP sources said the finance department has received files related to only 210 job codes. “If they have not taken up work till now, it implies that the work is not an essential one and the BBMP’s financial position does not allow us to take up non-essential works,” the official said.

Another official said the process will clean up the system once and for all.

“From 2021-22, we have mandated that officials should first prepare an estimate, get technical and administrative approval and call for tenders before a job code is generated, thus limiting the number of job codes,” the official said. “Now, this process of freezing the unused job codes will be similar to demonetisation where we uphold only genuine job codes and eliminate others.”

What is a job code?

A job code is a unique 11-digit identification number allotted to every BBMP work after it clears technical and administrative sanctions. Job codes were introduced to streamline the system of allotting works.

Chief engineers of the BBMP zones and departments have the power to issue job code certificates after verifying the genuineness of the work. The job codes lapse if the work is not executed in the same financial year.

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