AAP, BJP now spar over plan to get Delhi Transport Corporation buses

The Aam Aadmi Party has maintained there was no corruption because no bus was purchased and no payment was made

A 2019 report by a deputy commissioner in Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) , which flagged multiple irregularities in the proposed procurement of 1000 low floor buses by Delhi government in 2019, led to the scrapping of the tender which was almost finalised, according to documents seen by HT.

Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) buses at the DTC Rajghat depot, in New Delhi. (Representational image/Bloomberg)

The report was submitted in November 2019. On Sunday, lieutenant governor VK Saxena recommended a CBI probe based on the findings of this 2019 report (pertaining to irregularities in the 2019 bus procurement plan). The agency was already looking into alleged irregularities related to the proposed procurement of 1,000 low-floor buses in 2020.

The move has triggered a fresh war of words between the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Leader of opposition in the Delhi assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri of the BJP said AAP’s wrongdoings have been exposed and that the document shows that the AAP government was forced to backtrack and scrap the tender process in 2019. “Again in 2020, the AAP government brought a fresh tender for the procurement of 1000 buses and the annual maintenance contract of these buses under which the government again committed wrongdoings and the work order was also awarded. BJP MLAs had met the Lieutenant Governor and the Central Vigilance Commission regarding this matter. Those irregularities are being probed by the CBI,” said Bidhuri.

The Aam Aadmi Party has maintained there was no corruption because no bus was purchased and no payment was made.

First finding

The deputy commissioner report’s report pointed to some discrepancies . For instance, the pre-bid document split the 1000 buses into 400 BS-IV (Bharat Stage 4) buses and 600 BS-VI buses, but the RFP (request for proposal) was for 1000 low-floor CNG buses.The report added that the consultant (DIMTS) and the tender committee of DTC did not correctly evaluate the financial bids. Tata Motors made a bid for 600 buses only and, therefore, its bid should have been rejected which was not done, the report stated.

DTC invited JBM Auto for negotiation for BS-IV on the basis of rates quoted by Tata which never made any bid for BS-IV (it made a bid for 600 BS-VI buses only). This action of DTC was without any justification and the price negotiation with JBM was violative of GFR (general financial rules for government procurement) and CVC (central Vigilance Commission) guidelines, the report observed.

A Tata Motors official declined comment. JBM Auto did not respond to repeated calls and text messages.

According to the documents, based on the minutes of the DTC board’s meeting on November 25, 2019, there was a specific requirement of front facing seats in the RFP but both the consultant (DIMTS) and the DTC Tender Committee did not reject JBM bid which did not fulfil this condition. Since the buses offered by JBM did not have front facing seats as per the condition of the RFP, its bid should have been rejected at the techno-commercial stage itself and there was no justification to open the financial bid of a bidder whose bus did not meet the specifications, the report pointed out.

The report also flagged that the RFP contained a proforma for deviation but JBM did not mention any deviation from the specifications and therefore DTC should not have considered the bid. The report suggested that the RFP and tender process had been vitiated and said DTC must inquire into the matter and fix responsibility for the lapses.

The deputy commissioner(DTC), Subodh Kumar recommended that the DTC should scrap the tender and should call fresh bids without any delay.

The tender was scrapped. The LG recently approved a proposal of chief secretary Naresh Kumar to forward a complaint alleging corruption in the tendering process for the procurement of 1,000 low-floor buses in 2019 to the CBI. A complaint addressed to Saxena in June this year said that the appointment of the minister of transport as the chairman of the committee for tendering and procurement of buses by Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) was done in a “premeditated manner”. Saxena’s office did not issue an official statement on the matter. The complainant’s identity has not been disclosed yet.

The CBI in August 2021 registered a preliminary enquiry into alleged irregularities in (another) proposed purchase of and annual maintenance contract for 1,000 AC buses by the Delhi government in 2020 over complaints of irregularities. This tender was floated by the government after the scrapping of the 2019 tender.

Reactinf to the issue, a Delhi government spokesperson said, “ No money has been paid by DTC nor any bus has been delivered till date. Where is the corruption ? The 2019 tender for 1000 CNG buses was scrapped by the DTC board itself.”

On Sunday when reports of LG CBI probe nod came out, AAP chief spokesperson, Saurabh Bhardwaj rejected the allegations of corruption in procurement of buses.

“There is no question of corruption into the matter. No bus was procured under the proposal under question and no contract was awarded. The process was put on hold after inquiry started into the process, so there is no question of corruption. Not a single rupee payment was made. The government put the tendering process on hold after the inquiry started,” he said, referring to the then LG forming a three-member committee for inquiry in 2021.