Govt finds itself in deep water after PAC probe

[kartik]

Bhubaneswar: The State Government finds itself in the dock as the Assembly Public Account Committee's (PAC's) probe into the irregularities in the implementation of irrigation projects pointed out by CAG gathers momentum. The sub-committee of the PAC headed by Deputy Leader of Congress in the Assembly Narasingh Mishra deliberated on the irregularities, raised by the CAG in its reports of 2004-05 and 2005-06, at its meeting on Monday.

The objection raised by the CAG includes extra expenditure of Rs 1.21 crore in the Titlagarh irrigation project due to cancellation of tender for departmental lapses. Sources said 17 contractors had purchased tender documents while 13, including the Orissa Construction Corporation (OCC), participated in the process.

However, when the tender papers were opened only four were found to have fulfilled the criteria in which the OCC was not there. Surprisingly, tender papers of all the four contractors were cancelled and the work was allotted to OCC.

The ground of cancellation was shown that as there were many anorhalies in the tender papers they were rejected to avoid legal complications. It was found that the OCC engaged the four contractors, whose tender papers were cancelled, as sub-contractors for execution of the project. The sub-committee of the PAC has asked the Water Resources Department to explain as to how the valid tender papers of the four contractors were rejected to accommodate OCC and why the four were again re-engaged by the OCC for execution of work. The objection to unfruitful expenditure of Rs 3.94 crore in the execution of Chitrotpala right branch canal was also scrutinized by the panel. Among others, Ranendra Pratap Swain (BJD), Lalatendu Bidyadhar Mohapatra (Cong) and Mahesh Sahu (BJP) were present.