Chennai corporation draws up 4-step plan to cut corruption – Times of India

CHENNAI: The Greater Chennai Corporation has come up with a four-pronged plan to take on the contractor-official-consultant nexus and curb corruption in contracts to build drains, roads and other civic projects.

This was done after a series of marathon meetings last week of heads of all the major departments of the civic body – mechanical, stormwater drain, smart cities, special projects, parks and playfields, electrical and health.
The corporation will first see if the work is required and check all items and their cost. Estimates will be whetted at every level and by deputy commissioners. The second step is the tender process will be made completely online, cutting off human interface. The third step is inspection of the work undertaken, and the fourth is monitoring of the project management consultant’s reports.
“The selection of work itself would happen after thorough inspection. Estimates prepared will be inspected by senior IAS officials and site visits have been made mandatory before preparing estimates. For instance, now, desilting of stormwater drain is being proposed. The civic body has asked the official at the zonal level and the regional deputy commissioners to visit ten sites each and see if the work is required. Usually, estimates are prepared for the full length of the drains but cleaning will be done only at manholes. The regional deputy commissioners after site visit have realized this and recommended to leave out the length that won’t be desilted, saving a lot of money. Similarly, the road registries have been asked to be updated to ensure newly laid roads are not part of estimates anymore. Only those whose maintenance period has been completed will be taken up from now on,” said an official.
In the tender process, the civic body is scrutinizing all the clauses to eliminate those that favour certain contractors. “We have asked the Tamil Nadu e-governance agency to make provisions to upload the earnest money deposit online and to remove the requirement to upload machinery certificates. This will be done in a week’s time,” said an official.
And, lastly, all engineers have been asked to be in the field at 7am six days a week. They need to ensure work is carried out as per the estimates prepared. No deviation will be allowed. Also a system to monitor the project management consultants has been put in place so that they would be taken seriously by contractors. “We will standardize their work and include clauses such as the number of tests they need to carry out, the number of visits they need to undertake and so on. This way, they will be forced to appoint engineers to carry out these listed works,” said an official.
A senior corporation official said, “I want to scrutinize the work at every level and motivate officers to deliver. We need to set up a system that will remain even after this team of IAS officials leaves.”