Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) flays Meghalaya Agriculture Department

SUPPLY OF BAMBOO & AGAR PLANTING MATERIALS

A CORRESPONDENT

SHILLONG: The Meghalaya Agriculture Department incurred an extra expenditure of Rs 2.60 crore by awarding contracts to firms that had quoted higher rates for supply of bamboo and agar planting materials, despite their failure to submit the requisite documents.

This was revealed in the findings of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India report for the year ended March 31, 2018.

The report was tabled in the Meghalaya Assembly on December 19.

Besides, the Agriculture Department also extended undue favour to the firms by issuing supply orders even where they had not bid for a particular species.

The Department, issued financial sanction (2014-15 to 2016-17) for implementation of the scheme “Organic plantation of Bamboo and Agar for sustainable livelihood towards sustainable ecology”.

The Director of Horticulture issued (June 2015) Notice Inviting Tenders (NIT) for supply of “Planting Material of Bamboo (PMB) and Planting Material of Agar (PMA)”.

As per the terms and conditions of the NIT, the bids were to be supported by - Technical literature/ brochure of the Bamboo/ Agar species; Copy of Income Tax and Sales tax documents; Proof of satisfactory execution of previous orders; Certificate of incorporation/ proprietorship; Self attested certificate to ensure that the company/ firm meets the eligibility criteria; and Trading license in case of a Non-tribal.

In response to the NIT, 19 firms submitted bids for supply of PMB and 20 firms submitted bids for supply of PMA.

The Tenders Committee of the Horticulture Department (July 2015) rejected the bids of 13 and 16 Firms which had tendered for PMB and PMA respectively, due to their failure to support their bids with all the relevant documents listed in the NIT. Audit scrutiny (October 2018) of records of Director of Horticulture revealed that not only the rejected Firms, but none of the Firms had submitted all the relevant documents listed in the NIT.

Out of the rejected bids, two firms had quoted the lowest rate for supply of PMB and one firm (Firm-5) had quoted for supply of PMA.

Between August 2015 and July 2017, the Director of Horticulture procured 12.60 lakh units of five bamboo species from four firms13 at a cost of Rs 5.29 crore at and 9.60 lakh units of planting material of Agar from three firms at a cost of Rs 3.32 crore.

Since the firms with lowest price bid were disqualified, the Department incurred an extra expenditure of Rs 2.60 crore on purchase of PMB (Rs 1.58 crore) and PMA (Rs 1.02 crore) from firms that had also not fulfilled all the eligibility criteria.

“The decision of the Committee to reject the bids of the Firms that had offered the lowest rates on the ground that some of the documents listed in the NIT were not submitted, and selecting Firms which had also failed to submit the requisite documents and have quoted higher rates, or not quoted at all, had not only violated the principle of providing a level playing field, but has also resulted in the Department incurring an extra expenditure of Rs 2.60 crore,” the CAG report stated.

The CAG also pointed out that the action of issuing supply order to Firms despite non-submission of bids for particular species, amounts to extending undue favour to them.

“The Department’s rationale for entrusting the supply of planting material to these Firms, when they were not actually dealing in supply of the relevant material, was not available on record,” the report states.

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