MARGAO
The Shadow Council for Margao has exposed how bills worth crores of rupees were drawn and paid much before the works on the railway over bridge at Margao was executed.
Giving details of the work, convenor of Shadow Council for Margao, Savio Coutinho stated that the PWD National Highway Division XIV had tendered a work titled “Rehabilitation of various bridges on NH17(New NH66), ie. Ordhofond Bridge, Railway Over Bridge Margao and Mashem Bridge for a tendered amount of Rs 6,25,67,680.
He pointed out that the total estimated cost for the three bridges, the estimated cost for the Railway Over Bridge at Margao was pegged at 2,24,34,573/-(excluding GST). “While the estimates list a total number of 16 different work items for the Rs 2.24 crore job, the RTI information obtained revealed that a total amount of Rs 2 crore was paid to the contractor vide 2 bills dtd. 08/02/2022 and 28/02/2022,” he said.
Coutinho further said that 10 of the 16 items estimates have been “paid as executed”, but claimed that only 8 of the 10 paid items were actually executed, though substandard. “The remaining 2 items ie. Dismantling of pavement and providing drainage sprouts, together worth Rs 4,51,066/- have been included in the bill even though they have not been executed as there was no scope for such an item to be executed,” Coutinho charged.
He said most shocking fact about these bills paid for works pertaining to the R.O.B at Margao is that the bills are “recorded as executed” as early as 08/02/2022 and 28/02/2022, at a time when the work had just commenced, Coutinho charged further.
To prove his claim, he displayed a news video clip recorded on the R.O.B, on 04/03/2022 during the initial stages of work.
“Along with both the bills dtd 8/02/2022 and 28/02/2022 there are Certificates of Quality and Quantity, which certified that “work done bill, satisfies all norms of Ministry for quality and quantity”. The certificates further read that “no work of defective or substandard quality is recommended for payment”. The engineers issuing such certificates deserve to be flogged in public, Coutinho roared.
The SCM has strongly demanded that the concerned engineers should be immediately suspended and a Vigilance inquiry should be ordered in this scam.
Coutinho also called upon the PWD Minister Nilesh Cabral for a joint inspection of the R.O.B at Margao and to check for himself the shoddy work executed by his department. He has dared the Minister to take strong action against this alleged fraud and prove his sincerity to his loud announcements on intolerance of substandard work of contractors and his engineers.
When The Goan called up a senior PWD, NH official to offer his comment on the allegations made by the SCM, the official offered to make the comment only after verifying the details.
