SWD, road tender graft: DVAC books Velumani, 10 corpn officials

SWD, road tender graft: DVAC books Velumani, 10 corpn officials

A.Selvaraj@timesofindia.com 18.09.2024 

Chennai : Former ministerS PVelumaniof the AIADMK and 10 serving and retired officials of Greater Chennai Corporation have been booked by Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) for alleged corruption in awarding storm water drain (SWD) and road work tenders in 2018. The FIR filed on Tuesday is the fourth by the state govt’s anti-corruption agency against Velumani since DMK came to power in 2021. 

The FIR against Velu- mani, who was local administration minister from 2014 to 2021, is based on petitions given by Jayaram Venkatesan, convenor of NGO Arappor Iyakkam. DVAC said Velumani and the GCC officials, including former chief engineers M Pugalendi and L Nandakumar, violated all rules of business in allocating tenders and selecting contractors in 2018, which caused a loss of ₹26.61 crore. The agency began its preliminary enquiry into various tenders, including the missing link of storm water drains and the restoration of roads and footpaths. 

It was found that tender transparency rules were violated under the influence and directions of Velumani, DVAC said. M Govinda Rao IAS, then deputy commissioner (works) of GCC, was part of the tender scrutiny committee which approved the tenders, but he has not been named as an accused. 

DVAC: Under-quoted tender items were not properly executed DVAC singled out R Chandrasekar, a youth wing secretary of AIADMK and founder of KCP Engineering, for sitting in Velumani’s official residence and deciding which companies were to  be awarded the tenders. “This act vitiated and coloured the entire process of transparency in the award of tender. 

Freedom given by Velumani to Chandrasekar in dealing with GCC officials induced public servants to cause injudicious award of tenders,” an official from the agency said. The agency said M-sand was used by contractors for these projects, but payment was made on the basis of river sand rates, which were significantly higher. DVAC also found that the rates for ready-mix concrete decided by GCC were abnormally higher than prevailing market rates. In just 53 tenders analysed by DVAC, the alleged corruption in this aspect was ₹26.61 crore. “Contractors and GCC officials colluded with each other to cause loss to govt,” the agency said. It also alleged bid collusion by related parties who won tenders despite submitting bids from the same IP address. Of 73 SWD tender packages, 42 tenderers colluded with each other and helped each other win. The tender scrutiny committee, in which the GCC officials named in the FIR and Govinda Rao were members, recommended the award of 71 SWD tender packages and 14 road tender packages on the same day at one stroke without proper evaluation, DVAC said.

 Bidders had quoted abnormally high rates for certain items and low rates for others. Even after negotiations with the lowest bidder, the rate quoted by them was higher than the schedule of rate (SOR) and actual market rate. DVAC says the committee should have analysed the tender in detail, sought relevant information in writing and rejected unbalanced tenders. Avoiding this caused loss to the exchequer and violated the tender transparency Act as well. The agency also said under-quoted tender items were not properly executed, which was a violation of GCC’s internal circulars