Works cleared by monitoring panel itself found faulty

The role of 26 teams of retired engineers formed recently to monitor the 12,000-odd ongoing public works has come under scanner after it came out that 300 out of the 1,200 completed works the teams had approved for payments itself were faulty.

According to the Palike sources, the BBMP is undertaking about Rs 2,500 crore worth works across the City. These works were approved in 2013-14 and 2014-15. 

However, the stains of the large scale misappropriation of funds made the BBMP administration under the leadership of top bureaucrat T M Vijay Bhaskar order a multi-layer system of checks and balances. Besides introducing an online payment system for the contractors to avoid allegations of favouritism irrespective of the seniority list, the Palike administration set up teams to oversee the ongoing works.

The teams comprising retired engineers were fanned out all over the City to submit the status report of the works before payments. 

The status reports were later supposed to be sent to the Technical Vigilance Cell under Commissioner (TVCC) and the Finance Department of the BBMP for cross verification. These teams have been entrusted to look into all the aspects before proposing for payments, ranging from all the clearances to start the work, till the time it was completed.

Highly placed Palike sources said the teams recently expressed their satisfaction over the quality of work and gave their nod to 1,200 works for payment. When these files reached the Finance department as well as the TVCC, the two sections found discrepancies in about 300 works and held them back.

Major complaint was that the engineers did not upload all the information as well as the copies of all the necessary clearance in the BBMP’s online payment system. The defiant engineers, resisting the changes in the Palike's administration, resented the BBMP Administrator.

On Monday, said top sources, Administrator Vijay Bhaskar convened a video-conferencing with the officials at the eight zones of the BBMP and lashed out at them for not abiding by their instruction. It is learnt that the executive engineers of the Gandhinagar and Rajajinagar divisions were at the receiving end when they came out with an explanation, which did not impress the Administrator. 

While giving them an earful, Vijay Bhaskar warned them of strict action if they did not follow his instruction at the earliest, the sources said.