Disqualified contractor Badri Rai got subcontract of Assembly building: AITC
Shillong, Sept 20: The All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) has sought answers from the NPP-led government as to how Uttar Pradesh Rajkiya Nirman Nigam Ltd (UPRNN) had outsourced work to Badri Rai and Company.
As per the tender documents, Badri Rai company and Shiva Enterprises were disqualified from taking up work though they had submitted bid documents.
In a letter to PWD ( Buildings) minister Dasakhiat Lamare, the AITC national spokesperson Saket S Gokhale said the government failed to take action against the alleged illegal connivance between the contractors of the new Assembly building which led to collapse of the dome in May this year.
“What’s even more shocking is that the Govt of Meghalaya has not only failed to detect this unholy nexus but has also not taken any action or instituted any probe to find out what type of illegal collaboration was going on between UPRNN Ltd, Badri Rai and Company, and Shiva Enterprises and the reasons behind that,” he said.
Gokhale said, “The collapse of the Assembly dome and the loss caused to the exchequer is a direct result of this illegal connivance.”
Referring to media reports, the AITC leader wondered as to how the state government can retain the same contractor even after the report submitted by IIT-Guwahati.
“This clearly means that the unholy nexus is going to continue and the people of Meghalaya need answers as to why this is being allowed”, he said in the letter.
The bid documents for the tender were floated in 2018 and the bidders for the contract included M/s Bardi Rai and Company and UPRNN Ltd.
As per the tender bid summary document issued on February 21, 2018, the contractor Badri Rai and Company was disqualified from being awarded the tender on the grounds that the company did not fulfil the qualifying criteria of having successfully completed similar works during the last 7 years of key government buildings with dome or similar architectural features.
The other bidder for the Assembly building tender was M/s Shiva Enterprise. The contractor was disqualified on the grounds that hard copies of the technical bid were not submitted.
Shree Gautam Construction Co.Ltd was also not qualified as the company did not fulfil the qualifying criteria of having successfully completed similar works during the last 7 years of key government buildings with dome or similar architectural features.
The tender for the construction of the Assembly was finally awarded to the bidder UPRNN.
The AITC leader pointed out that while the website of the UPRNN Ltd states that the company does not sub-contract work to any other firm, the RTI findings revealed that the UPRNN Ltd has subcontracted construction work of the Assembly to both disqualified contractors namely, Badri Rai and Company and Shiva Enterprise.
“It baffles the mind that the Govt of Meghalaya and PWD (Buildings) allowed Uttar Pradesh Rajkiya Nirman Nigam Ltd to blatantly and brazenly subcontract the construction work to two contractors who had been disqualified at the tender evaluation stage,” he said.
This defeats the purpose of technical evaluation of a tender bid if disqualified contractors are eventually going to be subcontracted by the winning contractor, he added.
Though the two companies were disqualified, the UPRNN ended up subcontracting work to these same disqualified contractors leading to the collapse of the dome of the building,” he alleged.
Gokhale wanted to know whether the PWD (Buildings) Dept was aware that UPRNN had subcontracted the construction work to two disqualified contractors?
“Was any audit or spot check carried out during the construction of the new Assembly building by the PWD (buildings) to examine who were the actual contractors working on the construction of the building?, he said.
He also asked after the report submitted by IIT-Guwahati on the collapse of the dome of the new Meghalaya Assembly building, has the PWD (Buildings) department questioned UPRNN Ltd as to how they sub-contracted work to the two disqualified contractors.
