Palike issues new guidelines to pay contractors’ bills

Bengaluru: The BBMP on Thursday modified its payment system following allegations that the officials were unnecessarily harassing contractors for clearing bills. 

From fixing the timeline to clear the files to reducing the number of tables, the civic body, which has an annual budget of Rs 13,000 crore, has issued new guidelines to handle payment-related files. 

In an internal circular, BBMP Chief Commissioner Tushar Girinath mandated that every contractor can claim payment of bills only after submitting the necessary documents through the Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS). No payment can be sought by presenting copies of the works done physically. 

Once the submission is made, the engineer concerned gets 2-3 days to review the application and share his or her comments. All documents, including measurement books, before and after photos of the sites, need to be uploaded online. 

However, the bill will be cleared only after the work — costing over Rs 50 lakh — is approved by the quality assurance cell. Depending on the cost, about 2% to 10% of the work will be re-verified on a random basis.

Girinath said the BBMP had cleared some of the tables that were found redundant and added a timeline to avoid unnecessary delays.

“We are also making the entire process of clearing the bills online and open to the public,” he said. 

The BBMP Contractors’ Association was happy with the civic body for introducing a time-bound process to clear bills but was wary that the engineers would find one excuse or the other to delay the payments.

The association was disappointed that the civic body did not drop randomised checks, stating it only shows the top brass does not trust its own subordinates.