NUAPADA SSA PROJECT COORDINATOR UNDER SCANNER
NUAPADA SSA PROJECT COORDINATOR UNDER SCANNER
The District Project Coordinator (DPC), Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), has come under severe criticism for violating rules in allotment of tender and giving repeated time extensions to a Kolkata-based company for installation of solar water pumps in various primary schools of Nuapada district.
The project funded by the Coal India under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan was intended to set up water supply system for toilets through installation of solar PV power based submersible water pumps in the existing water sources.
Four bidders had participated in the tender bid in response to a notice published in the district websites of Nuapada as well as in the OPEPA website on September 4, 2015 for execution of the project.
Applications of three bidders were rejected on technical ground and the tender was finalized in favour of Environ Energy Corporation India Pvt Ltd (Bhaskar Solar) (EECIPL) of Kolkata with a quoted price of 2.68 lakh per unit of pump set.
“This is where the violation started. When there remained single bidder after rejection of three,the tender should have been cancelled according to OPWD norm,” says an official of the DPC office. “The then Collector for unknown reason showed undue favour to the EECIPL although the rate stated was abnormally higher than the other three,” adds he, requesting anonymity.
It is learnt that, the rate quoted by the EECIPL was 30 to 40% higher than the rest three bidders who were rejected on technical ground.
“Under such circumstance, the EECIPL could have been called for a negotiation and asked if it was willing to reduce the bid price,” say the official. It resulted in a loss of more than Rs 3 crore to the Government exchequer,” he informs.
The agreement between the DPC, SSA, Nuapada and M/S EECIPL was executed on December 8, 2015, wherein the latter had agreed to instal 200 water pumps within three months. But, it took 11 months for the company to complete the project although there was no abnormality in the situation. This was a gross violation of the agreement. In spite of the irregularity, the district administration demonstrating excessive favour towards the company, allotted more work for instalation of 169 additional water pumps in the second phase.
“The decision to allot work order for instalation of 169 water pumps in the second phase on the basis of the first tender bid is questionable, why a fresh tender was not called,” asks Chairman of Khariar Panchayat Samiti Balakrushna Sabar.
“They could have renegotiated the price, because in last two years, the prices of solar equipment have fallen substantially; this is certainly violation of the OPWD code, resulting in loss of public money,” adds he.
The company has not been able to complete the work within the stipulated time even in the second phase of work. It agreed to complete the work in three months ie, in the first week of November 2016, but, the work remains incomplete even till now after 13 months. It is learnt that, the present Collector has allowed more time to the company.
When asked why there is immense delay in project completion, the technical officer in charge of execution of the project, the DPC just parried the question. It is alleged that, this official role is suspicious as he has already been served a show cause notice for his wrong deeds in his previous station. A pertinent question about maintenance of quality also remains unanswered. There is no one in the district having expertise in PV solar powered water pump system.
Many of the systems installed in the district have gone defunct due to lack of maintenance.
Some observers say the administration should have taken help of Government agencies like OREDA to assure quality of such projects. Meanwhile, a demand has been made for a thorough investigation into misutilisation of funds here.
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