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Sunday, Sep 02, 2007
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Muneer waived tender provision: Isaac

Special Correspondent

Minister distributes copies of relevant documents related to seven cases

Finance Minister Thomas Isaac

Thiruvananthapuram: Finance Minister Thomas Isaac on Saturday alleged that the former Public Works Minister M.K. Muneer sanctioned several works waiving tender provisions as laid out by the PWD manual and code, besides bypassing the Finance Department.

Addressing a press conference here, Dr. Isaac distributed copies of the relevant documents related to seven cases where the former Minister waived in writing the tender provisions for public works overruling the objections of his secretaries.

The seven cases included the Marayur-Valancheri- Arimba road, Tirur-Malappuram-Manjeri road, Kozhikode-Gudallur road, Pulikkayam bridge, Kolathur-Karipur road, Kariattukadavu bridge and the Malappuram-Kottapaddy bypass.

The Minister said the Accountant-General’s test checks conducted on the public works undertaken during 2005-06 as per the request of his department revealed several irregularities, including the seven that had been made public. Dr. Isaac said the former Minister claimed that he had powers to waive tender provisions, but such a provision in the PWD manual could be invoked only under exceptional circumstances.

The seven works Mr.Muneer sanctioned did not come under this category. In all the seven cases, there was no budget provision for works and the files were not sent to the Finance Department for approval.

In reply to a question on the total amount of works that had been irregularly sanctioned, the Finance Minister said that the exact amount was not available, but his department had taken stock of works sanctioned during 2005-06.

It was found that Rs.291 crore had been sanctioned without tenders for 5,025 works. The Accountant-General found that 76 plan works had been sanctioned without tenders. He said in some of the cases, un-tendered works would have been undertaken in connection with VVIP visits. It was not possible to know whether the estimates for works had been revised later. In 2006, administrative sanction was given for works worth Rs.134 crore, but the amount spent was as high as Rs.751 crore.

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