KMC carried out 700 different construction works last year. [break]
The report says that authorities in the metropolis have breached all established rules and regulations in the contract awards process.
“The metropolis does not even have any policy about the quality of roads the office is to construct,” committee Chairman Jayamukunda Khanal said adding, “The office is awarding tenders without following established procedures.”
He also said that people with access to KMC officials and their acquaintances are landing tenders for construction work. “We have found evidence of tenders being awarded without a bidding process,” he added.
The committee last week raided the Construction Department of the metropolis and seized all related documents. The committee says that it confiscated the documents following complaints by local people.
Chairman Khanal said that the metropolis has not maintained proper accounts of construction work. The committee has carried out field visits and investigated documents maintained by the office. He said that the investigation was conducted through a sampling method.
Committee officials have studied 60 files and confiscated two of them, he said. The committee has also taken four files from Lalitpur Sub-metropolis for the investigation of construction work there.
Spokesperson of Lalitpur Sub-metropolis Badri Krishna Tamrakar claimed that all work at the sub-metropolis is transparent and the committee has taken some of the files only for study. “They have taken the files only to see whether the jobs we did were correct or not,“ he said.
Spokesperson of KMC Gyanendra Karki also made similar remarks. “After the committee took the files we warned the consumer committees to make sure and do a fine job,” Karki said.
The committee on Tuesday discussed the irregularities with the consumer committees. Chairman Khanal said that KMC has declined to pay the consumer committees, citing the investigations as a pretext.
“We have not obstructed the KMC from paying its dues to the local consumer committees; KMC has stopped making payments on the pretext of the investigations undertaken by our committee,” he stated. KMC used to award tenders to local consumer committees.
The investigation committee was formed two months ago under the directive of Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai to probe the poor condition of roads in KMC, following complaints by locals. Prime Minister Bhattarai had asked the committee to submit a detailed report within two months. The committee says that the report is almost complete and will be submitted by the end of this week.
Related story
PAC begins probe into I/NGOs irregularities
