PWD Needs to be Tough with Erring Contractors: PAC

PWD Needs to be Tough with Erring Contractors: PAC

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Sept 12: The Public Account Committee (PAC) of the Assam Legislative Assembly (ALA) wants that the State PWD needs to be tough with irregular and blacklisted contractors by not giving them any new contracts.

The PAC, with its chairman Rajdeep Gowala in the chair, reviewed works of the PWD on Wednesday. The committee has expressed its worry over the fact that a contractor in the Barak Valley, who had been blacklisted by the Congress government, was given new contracts by the same government. The PAC says that the department needs to be tough with the erring contractors and no new work orders should be allotted to any of the blacklisted contractors. According to the PAC, no new contract should also be given to any contractors whose earlier works are pending. “They, however, can be given fresh works as and when they complete their pending works,” it said, and added: “The monitoring of work should be very strict, be it in fields or in offices.”

PAC member and AGP MLA Ramendra Narayan Kalita said: “We lay stress on quality of works and their time-bound completion. We hope the PWD Minister will also lay stress on these two aspects.”

In every practical or functional sense, bidding much below the department’s estimated costs of works to woo contracts is a common practice in Assam. After getting work orders, a section of such contractors fail to complete their works on schedule. Instances are at hand. The road widening work from Jagiroad to Morigaon town has been going on for seven/eight years now.

Moreover, there are some big-package works which only a few contractors are capable of doing. With fewer contractors of their stature in the bidding system, they are the ones who get such big contracts ultimately.

Now PWD Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is faced with a major challenge – clearing the L-1 hurdle (the system of awarding contracts to the lowest bidders) to give work orders to competent contractors. He has other hurdles as well. Can he jump over them? It is indeed a matter to be seen. Soon after taking the charge of PWD, he did warn all contractors of the department against any compromise with quality of works.

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