KATHMANDU, Sept 28: The government is considering canceling contracts for 234 stalled road and bridge projects that have remained incomplete for years.
Speaking at a meeting with senior officials of line ministries and government offices on Saturday, Kulman Ghising—who currently heads the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transportation, and the Ministry of Urban Development—said he had no option but to terminate contracts for projects that have been neglected or left unattended.
According to Ghising, the sick contracts include projects under the road division offices of the Federal Road Supervision and Monitoring Office, the Department of Roads, the Postal Highways, and the Mid-Hill Highways. The review covers 38 projects under the Damak office, 75 in Kathmandu, 39 in Pokhara, 49 in Surkhet, 16 related to the Postal Highway, and 17 under the Mid-Hill Highway.
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The government plans to form a committee to investigate both former and current employees responsible for allowing these contracts to become sick by failing to carry out required work. “We can no longer afford to wait for contractors to act. We need to identify and evaluate projects that are delayed or not meeting quality standards,” Ghising said, adding that this move could help end the practice of accepting contracts without performing the work.
Under government rules, any contract worth more than Rs 20 million is considered sick if progress remains below 50 percent even after the deadline has been extended once for a period equal to the original contract.
Similarly, a contract of the same value is classified as sick if construction progress is below 80 percent after the deadline has been extended to more than twice the original period.
Likewise, a contract worth more than Rs 20 million is also defined as sick if progress remains below 95 percent after the deadline has been extended to more than four times the original period.
In a number of cases, many contractors have been found accepting contracts by bidding at reasonably low prices in order to take undue advantages by bribing the concerned government officials. It had been found that these unscrupulous contractors invest the advance money taken from the government to invest elsewhere, by neglecting the construction works for which they have been assigned for.
Such practices have wasted significant public funds and deprived citizens of timely benefits from infrastructure projects. As of now, the government bodies appear to have negligible control on these types of contract management.
Ghising said impunity has grown because of the failure to act against those responsible for letting contracts deteriorate. “Contracts become sick when employees fail to make timely decisions, and those employees must also be held accountable,” he said.
He added that immediate action will be taken against any officials of the ministry and its subordinate offices who are found guilty of irregularities, delays, bribery, or causing inconvenience to service recipients under various pretexts.
