Mumbai:Not satisfied with the BMC’s refusal to accept any misconduct in the purchase of a washing machine for hospital use, BJP MLA Amit Satam has demanded strict action against officials for flouting tender norms and tweaking them to favour a particular company. The BJP leader has repeatedly been exposing corruption in BMC by providing evidence to the Commissioner.
In a fresh letter written to Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal, Satam has demanded to review the tender and take strict action against officials involved in corruption. In his earlier letter, Satam had exposed how the tender was tweaked at the last moment to favour the companies. He received a reply to it by BMC officials refusing any misconduct in the tendering process. However, Satam was not satisfied with the reply and gave more evidence to the Commission to prove his allegation.
Satam has raised nine points doubting the tendering process and showed discrepancies in the tender conditions. It includes, if any market survey was conducted about the tunnel style washing machine and its details. what and how did the technical specifications were finalise?how did the financial estimate was finalised and specify its details? why the experience of the bidder’s work “abroad” is considered that is against BMC and CVC’s guidelines. the work experience did not mention tunnel laundry work by the bidder.What was the need of asking for different experience in PEB and civil work when it is not even 20 per cent of the entire work? why the inexperienced bidder was given an exemption from work experience and told to attach an MoU on Rs 500 stamp paper that it would satisfy the criteria? Why the financial capacity of the bidder was not considered as per the guidelines? the last point says “during last seven (7) years ending last day of month previous to the one in which bids are invited as a Prime Contractor,” which looks like favouring the companies.
He has even given a list of companies which participated in the bidding process. The companies are as follows,
L1 – PARICHAY DEPARTMENT STORES PVT LTD which is a departmental store and has no required financial turnover of Rs 48 crore annually. L2 – SWAAI INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED has no experience in the said work and low turnover.L3 – AURA FACILITIES MANAGEMENT PVT LTD is a facility management company with low turnover. “I am surprised to know that the commercial packet was opened on April 18, 2022, when the condition for the bidding was ended on March 24, 2022. How did the paper inspection conducted in just record 14 days? One should congratulate the officials,” he said.
Satam even alleged that the tendering process did not follow BMC and Central Vigilance Committee (CVC) guidelines. “The concerned departments did not study the tender and drafted it to favour a few. It has flouted all the norms. It is even more surprising that the auditor did not find any discrepancies in the tendering. Therefore, I demand that a proper inquiry should be conducted and action be taken against the officials involved,” he said.
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