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₹11.5 cr excess payment to contractor: Probe indicts 3 XENs, 8 other Punjab PWD officials
A fresh tender worth ₹11 crore has been invited by the PWD department to complete the project as payments to the contractor were made showing the work complete
Three executive engineers, among 11 Public Works Department (PWD) officials, have been indicted after a departmental probe over undue advantage worth ₹11.5 crore given to a contractor engaged in constructing a judicial complex in district headquarters at Nawanshahr.
According to the probe, conducted by the PWD headquarters, undue favours were given to the contractor named ‘Ms Tung Contractors’ in the form of price escalation, performance security, excess payment, payment of variation and release of bank guarantee even as the work for the building was not complete.
A fresh tender worth ₹11 crore has been invited by the PWD department to complete the project as payments to the contractor were made showing the work complete.
The officials who have been indicted, include executive engineers Rajinder Kumar, Balwinder Singh and Jasbir Jassi, sub-divisional engineers Tajidner Singh and Ram Pal, junior engineers Rajinder Singh, Rakesh Kumar and Rajiv Sharma, divisional accounts officer Rajesh Sinha, auditor Amarjit Singh and superintendent Ram Lall.
All the officials will now face criminal proceedings based on the probe titled ‘Misutilisation of funds regarding judicial court complex SBS Nagar’ ordered on July 7 this year. The probe was ordered after a committee of the Punjab and Haryana high court pressed the PWD department over the delay in the completion of the judicial complex.
The probe was conducted by a committee of four officials including superintendent engineer (HQs) Gurmukh Singh, sub-divisional engineer (quality control) Aadesh, executive engineers (quality control cell) Anil Kumar Sharma and Jaswinder Singh. The committee was formed on the orders of then secretary PWD Neelkanth Avhad.
The report of the committee, a copy of which is available with Hindustan Times, makes it clear that the payment to the contractor was released showing the work as complete.
Grave shortcomings, but payments released
The report has revealed that when it came to the supply and fixing of door frames, neither the work was executed nor is the material available at the site. The same was for window frames, float glass and supply of steel for multilevel parking. Kota stones and coloured granite stone was also missing, along with interlock tiles and Baroda greens. This amounted to a loss of ₹3.42 crore, the committee found, the report said.
The contractor was given an escalation payment of ₹2.67 crore, whereas as per the technical vetted estimate by the technical advisor to the Punjab chief minister, the provision for the escalation was kept at ₹1.85 crore, the report added.
The bank guarantee of the builder, deposited for the tender to the tune of ₹1 crore, was also released, and an officer has submitted to the probe team that signatures of the superintendent shown to the bank for the release of the guarantee amount are forged. The security amount of ₹2 crore was also released by the department to the contractor without even penalising him, the report further adds.
The judicial complex was to come up in 13.2 acres of land at a cost of nearly ₹55 crore. In total, 11 courtrooms, 156 chambers for the lawyers, houses for judicial officers and basic infrastructural amenities were to be built.
According to a senior government functionary in the PWD, the officials held responsible for the excess payment are now facing department action and criminal proceedings. However, the department is silent on the contractor, who got favours worth crores in collusion with the PWD officials.
