Auditor’s old note flays contractors
Irate corporators might have forced the civic chief accountant (finance) to apologise for his allegations of their illegal nexus with contractors, but a note prepared much earlier by a now retired chief auditor is testimony to how contractors resort to all sorts of unlawful tricks while carrying out the ward-level works.
In 2011, a five-page note written by then chief auditor P.C. Pisolkar pointed to the modus operandi of civic work contractors (CWCs), who by influencing corporators and civic officials, increase budgetary allocations of their works and also extend contract periods. It also throws light on their methods to evade vigilance by the civic body.
In a note submitted to the then municipal commissioner Subodh Kumar, the chief auditor mentioned that contractors deliberately split the big civil tenders into small parts so that it was not inspected by the BMC. According to civic rules, work below `3 lakh is not scrutinised by the civic vigilance department.
The note also reveals that contractors carry out repeat work, shy away from announcing the list of work done by them and also do not point out the exact work spots to make it difficult for civic officials to inspect. The ward level work orders are intentionally given at the end of the financial year, so that bills are cleared quickly even when the work is not completed.
In March an internal note prepared by chief accountant Ram Dhas said that corporators abetted malpractices carried out by contractors for ward level civil works, resulting in largescale corruption and financial malpractices.
Following corporators’ objections, Mr Dhas had apologised to them.
However, civic chief Sitaram Kunte defended Mr Dhas by saying the note prepared by him
was based on Mr Pisolkar’s report. Despite several attempts Mr Pisolkar remained unavailable for comments.
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