Date:28/09/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/09/28/stories/2007092850080100.htm

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Road works to be monitored regularly

N.J. Nair

Technical auditing wing to get more teeth to ensure quality of civil works

Rs.500 crore a year for maintenance alone
Steps to fill vacancies in auditing wing

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The technical auditing wing of the government will be given more teeth for timely monitoring and ensuring quality of civil works, mainly laying and maintenance of roads, being executed by the Public Work Department.

Considering the fact that around Rs.500 crore is being expended annually for maintenance alone, the government is taking steps to check wastage of public funds and remove hurdles in the way of checking by the chief technical examination wing.

Official sources told The Hindu that the Finance Ministry had given firm directions to the Chief Technical Examiner to conduct random inspections of road works scheduled to be taken up. The Government had accorded administrative sanction to do maintenance works at a cost of Rs.320 crore in a time-bound manner. This provided for divergence from the existing system of the wing acting either on the basis of complaints about the quality of works or to furnish routine reports to the government.

Out of the 14 posts of engineer in the chief technical examination wing, nine are vacant. Steps have been taken to fill the vacancies at the earliest. The government is seriously contemplating increasing the number of posts from 14 to 20 so that inspections can be carried out simultaneously in various parts of the State. Regional centres of the wing have been proposed, sources said.

Priority to road works

The government has attached top priority to road works. In the wake of complaints that a major share of the funds apportioned for such works are not being utilised for the purpose, random inspections have been mooted to check the corrupt practices in executing them. There are also complaints that works are cleared and funds sanctioned on the basis of bloated estimates. The auditing process will be initiated from the awarding stage itself.

Huge sums were wasted during the tenure of the previous government in the name of road works and the money was not effectively used either for laying new roads or maintaining the existing one.

Moreover, the present government had to bear the financial burden for clearing the pending bills of the contractors.