News: MCG’s executive engineer under probe for discrepancies in release of funds-30-12-2020
The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) has initiated an investigation against one of its executive engineers for allegedly sanctioning the release of funds for a project in Ward 34, even before work had started at the site. His charge as an executive engineer (XEN) has been withdrawn with immediate effect, said officials.
According to the MCG joint commissioner, Hariom Attri, the civic body had last month floated tenders to re-carpet roads in wards 34 and 35, a project that primarily involved fixing of potholes. The cost of the project was estimated to be around Rs 47.50 lakh and Rs 24 lakh in wards 34 and 35, respectively.
Attri said that the concerned XEN, in collusion with the contractor, had paid Rs 47.50 lakh, the entire cost of the project for fixing potholes in Ward 34 to the contractor.
“For both wards 34 and 35, I had received a letter from the area councillors concerned that they had not issued any work satisfactory certificates to the MCG. Funds were sanctioned to the contractor for work in Ward 34 and were under process for Ward 35. Both the councillors alleged that their certificates had been forged by the XEN, and the matter has been investigated and a report in the matter submitted to the MCG commissioner for perusal and further action. In both wards, no work on the ground had been started,” said Attri.
In July 2019, the MCG introduced a policy that for ward-specific projects, payment to a contractor can only be made after the councillor of the area checks the work on-ground and subsequently, issues a work satisfactory certificate. This way, there was greater scrutiny on the quality of work executed.
The issuance of forged work satisfactory certificates has been a major problem in the MCG recently. In November, the civic body found at least 12 forged fake satisfactory certificates, bearing either fake signatures of the councillors or missing key details, such as the type of project or the date, based on which contractors were paid the entire project amount.
The MCG has already withdrawn the charge of two XENs, an assistant engineer, a junior engineer over the allegations and further written to the directorate of the Urban Local Bodies (ULB) to take legal action against the four officials and three contractors.
One of the XENs who is already under probe is also the XEN who is under probe for the alleged wrongdoings in wards 34 and 35.
The withdrawal of charge of the XEN comes at a point when the MCG is struggling with a shortage of senior officials. The charges of four of 10 MCG’s XENs have been withdrawn over the last two months for negligence or corruption, leading to a major delay in developmental projects. Several MCG XENs are currently holding dual charges.
The MCG is considering reshuffling the entire engineering wing to overcome the shortage of manpower. The transfers are expected to take place early next month, said officials.
Besides the issuance of fake certificates, over the last 12 months, the MCG has also had several cases where the contractor has been paid the entire or partial amount even when the project is either yet to start or is at a nascent stage. As per the Haryana Municipal Corporation Act, 1994, the MCG can only pay the contractor for running costs of a project, while the final sum is only paid after the work is completed.
The XEN concerned did not respond to phone calls and messages for comment.
Instances of payments to contractors before the work have been cropping up regularly. In one instance, the MCG’s engineering wing had paid Rs 35 lakh to a contractor in December 2019 for constructing a 1.7-kilometre track between Khushboo Chowk and Bristol Chowk, along the Gurgaon-Faridabad Road. Only 600 metres of work, worth Rs 11 lakh, had been completed.
In February 2020, the MCG’s engineering wing had paid Rs 1.67 crore, the total project cost, to a contractor for building a two-kilometre road in Ward 1 even before the construction had started.
In September 2020, a contractor was paid Rs 50 lakh, nearly a quarter of the total project cost of Rs 2 crore, for laying pavement tiles in ward 25, by the MCG’s engineering wing, despite only 10% work being completed.
