BMC’s body bag tender process under ED scanner

The Enforcement Directorate is investigating the tendering process for body bags supplied to the Brihanmumbai Mumbai Corporation during the Covid pandemic as part of a money laundering probe into ?4,000 crore in pandemic-related contracts. The agency is examining allegations of irregularities in the tender process and inflated prices for body bags and Covid medicines. The probe has been expanded to include the role of middlemen and the entire expenditure on pandemic-related contracts. The investigation is based on an FIR filed against Lifeline Hospital Management Services, contracted by the BMC for jumbo Covid centres.

MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has brought under its scanner the tendering process related to the supply of body bags to the Brihanmumbai Mumbai Corporation (BMC) during the Covid pandemic as part of its money laundering probe related to ₹4,000-crore expenditure.

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The agency is verifying allegations that a bidder, who had claimed to have met all the specifications of the tender but still unsuccessful in the bid, sources said. The agency is examining the parameters of the tender and the grounds of the selection employed then by the civic body to determine whether there was any irregularity in the process, sources added.

It was alleged that the civic body had purchased body bags for around ₹6,700 per piece, inclusive of taxes, which were around 10 times more than what it had paid for bags to another private supplier. In 2020, the civic body had claimed that the contract was given to a vendor as other bidders who had participated in the tender procedure had allegedly failed the leak test for their body bags.

The agency is also examining allegations that Covid medicines were provided to the civic body, at times, that were 25 to 30% costlier than in the open market.

The ED has widened the scope of its money laundering investigation into the Jumbo Covid Centres’ irregularities and brought the BMC’s entire ₹4,000-crore expenditure on pandemic-related contracts under its scanner. The step was taken after the ED found alleged irregularities across the board, from the award of contracts to the purchase of medicines and body bags at suspected inflated rates to arranging for accommodation for personnel at locations close to their workplace.

The agency had, during its searches carried out in June—including those at 15 locations and when its team visited to gather details from the civic Central Purchase Department (CPD) —recovered several allegedly incriminating documents and records that necessitated the widening of the probe’s scanner to include all Covid-related contracts.

The agency is also examining the role of up to five middlemen, some of whom had claimed to have political contacts, who allegedly liaised between Covid suppliers and the BMC. It appears that these middlemen allegedly influenced some contracts’ conditions to suit their favourite suppliers, sources said.

The ED probe is based on a FIR lodged in August 2022 by the Azad Maidan police against the partners of Lifeline Hospital Management Services, contracted by the BMC to set up two jumbo Covid centres, in Worli and Dahisar. According to the FIR, the company got the contract using allegedly forged documents and had no previous experience of providing manpower for any medical facility.