‘CVC Report Kept Under Wraps For 3 Yrs'

Time of India

30-04-2025

New Delhi: The
Anti-Corruption Bureau
's action on the construction of classrooms in the capital comes in the wake of a report by the chief technical examiner of the
Central Vigilance Commission
besides the enquiry carried out by the agency and the department of vigilance (DoV), sources said.
The CVC's report pointed out several anomalies in the classroom construction project, but it was kept under wraps for about three years, said Madhur Verma, joint commissioner of police and ACB chief, on Wednesday. "During enquiry, it was found that the examination report of the chief technical examiner, CVC, in the matter was issued on Feb 17, 2020, with the approval of the competent authority but it was suppressed for about three years," he said.
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In April 2015, then CM Arvind Kejriwal had directed construction of classrooms in govt schools. PWD was entrusted with the initial task of constructing 2,405 classrooms in 193 schools. It carried out a survey and projected a total requirement of 7,180 equivalent classrooms in 194 schools, almost three times the initial figure, sources said.
It was decided that semi-permanent structures (SPS) would be cost effective for the project. The
CVC report
, however, observed that ultimately the actual cost of the SPS classrooms was more or less equal to the cost of permanent structures. Due to adoption of richer specifications, the construction cost of these classrooms almost matched the cost of pucca classrooms and apparently no financial benefit of adoption of SPS construction was achieved, the report concluded.
"The actual cost per sq ft … as worked out in the CVC report is Rs 2,292 per sq ft against the cost of pucca structure model schools @ Rs 2,044-2,416 per sq ft," the report says.
ACB also observed that contracts were awarded after the tenders for work worth Rs 860.6 crore. However, contract values eventually escalated by 17-90% due to richer specifications. "The escalation amounted to Rs 326.2 crore, of which Rs 205.4 crore was attributable to richer specifications, comprising 23.8% of the award value," Verma said. Contrary to CVC guidelines, no fresh tenders were invited to reflect these changes.
Additionally, construction work worth Rs 42.5 crore was executed in five of the schools without proper tenders and under existing contracts, the investigation of CVC and ACB revealed. Verma said, "The report of CTE/CVC flagged violations of various clauses of the CPWD Works Manual 2014, GFR 2017, CVC guidelines and other irregularities and alleged that various decisions taken after the award of tenders were not in accordance with the guidelines of CVC and other manuals, resulting in financial loss," Verma said.
ACB has communicated its findings to DoV, which has examined the probe report and observed that the construction cost of classrooms in different zones and districts of the education department was revised despite the expenditure and finance committee's clear instructions in its first meeting in Oct 2015 that no change would be considered in future.
DoV also said that the construction was not completed within the prescribed deadline of June 2016 and in some cases, general financial rules were not followed, thus giving undue advantage to contractors. The vigilance directorate has recommended "fixing responsibilities" of the officials concerned in PWD and the education department.