To ensure quality, Sawant to check some PWD contracts
Chief minister
Pramod Sawant
on Monday agreed to review PWD contracts or tenders where work was awarded to contractors who quoted more than 20% below the estimated costs. He reassured the assembly that govt will ensure that the quality will not be compromised.
MLAs, including from BJP, said work quality is likely to be affected, thus leading to sub-standard works. BJP MLA Nilesh Cabral moved a calling attention motion demanding that the CM outline steps to address the concerns.
'I will check all the tenders that have come out since the circular was issued. I will revisit all the contracts issued,' said Sawant.
The PWD issued a circular on May 26 saying that all tenders floated by the department from June 1 would no longer reject bids which were more than 20% below the cost estimated by the department.
The circular says the contractor can submit his lowest offer, a trend GFP MLA Vijai Sardesai described as a race to the bottom.
BJP MLA Govind Gaude urged Sawant to withdraw the circular and set a lower limit of 10% for bids.
Sawant said that to ensure quality for all road and infrastructure works worth over Rs 50 lakhs, a third-party agency would conduct a quality audit. While earlier, RITES was tasked with monitoring the quality of the works, the PWD has now appointed a new agency since it was unhappy with RITES' performance.
For works worth up to Rs 50 lakh, PWD's works division XI, which handles quality control, ensures that all the works taken up by the department meet quality standards.
However, MLAs disagreed with Sawant's assurances.
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