Hyderabad: A nexus between the field staff and contractors is denting the revenues of the GHMC, sources said. Field engineers have been floating tenders for infrastructure works at escalated prices, and finalising bids for around 30 per cent less than the tender value.
In one such instance, the civic body floated a tender for Rs 96-lakh monsoon works at Malakpet and finalised it for Rs 70 lakh. Of the Rs 70 lakh, work of Rs 50 lakh was executed. Sources alleged that Rs 20 lakh was shared between the field staff and the contractor.
Senior officials noticed this and took action, following which the money was recovered from the contractor and field engineers were hit with an inquiry.
A senior official, requesting anonymity, said that more such instances may be unearthed with an inquiry is called on field engineers in all 30 GHMC circles and the money may run into crores. Further, engineers were instructed to revise the current bids for all infrastructure works.
This is not the first such instance of a scam coming to light. In a previous instance, 16 junior staff, such as data entry operators and work inspectors were identified as having been involved in a scam, but they have not faced action. In that scam, engineers had assured outsourced employees and junior officials of a cut and ensured their relatives got GHMC work contracts.
Contractors are not eligible to apply for work in a circle where their relatives hold ranks of assistant engineer, assistant executive engineer, divisional accounts officer or higher ranks. They are required to furnish a list of gazetted and non-gazetted state government employees related to them.
The engineers had got around this clause by awarding contracts to the relatives of outsourced employees and junior officials.
In 2018, a claim for drain desilting works worth Rs 1.2 crore was found to be untrue as contractors had submitted fake bills, with fake vehicle registration numbers mentioned as being used for transporting the silt. Contractors disclosed that 13 assistant engineers were in cahoots with them, but no action was taken against the engineers.
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