The Hindu : CPWD favours outsourcing of works

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Nov 23, 2002

National

National

CPWD favours outsourcing of works

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI Nov. 22. In a far-reaching recommendation, a Review Committee on the functioning of the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) has favoured gradual outsourcing and privatisation of construction works of various departments of Government traditionally handled by the central agency to bring in professionalism and eliminate the red tape.

After handing over the interim report to the Union Urban Development Minister, Ananth Kumar, the former Public Works Minister of Maharashtra, Nitin Gadkari, who headed the committee, told mediapersons that apart from the adoption of the norms providing for incentives for early completion of the projects and fines for delays, the panel had recommended performance audit on the lines of financial audits.

The interim recommendations have short-, medium- and long-term perspective and aim at improving operational capabilities, organisational restructuring and finally turning CPWD into an organisation with a global standing.

Training of CPWD personnel to make them up-to-date with the world standard management and technological skills was also emphasised by Mr. Gadkari.

Computerisation of the organisation which would lead to greater transparency is another major recommendation. The committee has also suggested trimming of various procedures that would make CPWD more efficient both in terms of cost and time factor, said Mr. Gadkari, who did the pioneering work in construction of 50 flyover bridges in Mumbai in a record time besides the completion of the Mumbai-Pune Expressway.

Ananth Kumar said the rule which mandated CPWD being given the first chance to take up any civil work by the Government departments had been relaxed.

Now there would be no need to seek clearance from CPWD for assigning projects involving expenditure up to Rs. 5 crores to an outside agency. Some of the recommendations which could be implemented within a week would be implemented right away through administrative instructions.

The Review Committee, which had also set up various subcommittees to make recommendations to update building code to bring them at par with world standards, had made various suggestions including enhancement of earnest money, introduction of performance security, price adjustments, fixing milestones and introduction of incentive and penalty clause for projects.

Mr. Gadkari favoured the creation of commercial-viable projects and assigning them to the private sector and utilisation of public money for those essential projects for which funds would not be forthcoming from the private sector.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National