Contractors fake documents to bag PWD works in Karnataka

The state government has identified over a dozen cases of fraud where contractors produced fake documents to bag contracts for infrastructure projects that have now been put on hold.

This was discovered in the Public Works Department (PWD), one of the busiest wings of the government in terms of the sheer scale of projects involved. The PWD is now conducting a full-fledged inquiry into such cases. The erring contractors will be blacklisted.

For now, frauds related to projects worth over Rs 6 crore have been detected. But there are concerns about large-scale irregularities.

At least six contractors were involved in the fraud — they provided either fake bank guarantee documents or fudged their annual turnover to bag 15 government projects, according to information tabled by Deputy Chief Minister Govind Karjol in the Legislative Assembly in response to a question by Congress' Eshwar Khandre.

Some of these projects are the construction of a foot overbridge near Yana and Nagare Hosahittalu in Honnavara, improvement of a village road in Ulavi in Dharwad and works on Agsur-Shirgunji road in Ankola. In Bidar and Kalaburagi, two contractors provided fake documents to bag State Highway Development Project (SHDP) works.

Karjol said that as soon as the fraud was identified, the government cancelled the tenders for the projects.

He told DH that the PWD had found many irregularities and was in the process of conducting further investigation into such incidents. "Our officials are looking into it. If more cases come to light, we will immediately blacklist those contractors and ensure strict action against them," he said.

According to N Mahadevaswamy, President, Karnataka SC/ST Contractors Association, there are enough provisions in the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurements Act for streamlining the way contracts are awarded. "But these regulations are not being implemented properly," he said. "There is a system in place to identify duplicate documents. The government needs to ensure that it is implemented properly," he said, adding that government officials were hand in glove in this. "Such frauds would not have happened without the involvement of officials," Mahadevaswamy said.

In the 2020-21 fiscal, the PWD has an allocation of Rs 10,229 crore. In the 2019-20 fiscal, the PWD's accounts showed an expenditure of Rs 9,179.82 crore. In 2018-19 and 2019-20, it took up development of roads spanning a total of 17,964 km under various multi-crore projects.