KRIDL contract without tender process raises eyebrows

Bengaluru: The Karnataka Rural Infrastructure Development Limited (KRIDL) has entrusted a private consultancy firm with the task of inspecting the quality of all works that will be executed over a period of one year.

However, the work been awarded to Bureau Veritas India Pvt Ltd, without floating tenders. KRIDL has decided to pay 1% of the project cost as a consultancy fee. 

The move has raised questions about the transparency in the functioning of the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department (RDPR), which is the parent department of KRIDL. Such works are generally awarded to private firms only through the standard tendering process to get competitive bids. 

Documents show that KRDIL chose to take exemption under Section 4(G) of the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurements Act to award the contract to Bureau Veritas India Pvt Ltd. This agency will be responsible for inspection of every work — costing between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 2 crore — for quality check. The contract was reportedly issued in January this year. 

As many firms have the expertise of providing such services, sources in the government said the department should have opted for the tender process or roped in government-backed firms like Infrastructure Development Corporation (Karnataka) Limited (iDeCK). 

Last month, the Finance Department had issued fresh guidelines after many departments were skipping the tendering process to award contracts to companies of their choice.