The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Local bodies to execute public works projects

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 30, 2005

Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Local bodies to execute public works projects

T.Nandakumar

To be equipped with independent system

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The local bodies in the State will soon be equipped with an independent system to commission and execute public works projects.

A technical expert committee constituted by the Department of Planning is working on a new contracting system to promote the role of beneficiary committees and break the monopoly of contractors.

The committee is in the final stages of preparing a public works manual exclusively for local self-government institutions.

Taken up as a fast track scheme under the Modernising Government Programme, the project is designed to revive the concept of community participation in construction projects and update standards and specifications.

The Government had embarked on the project after it was found that the system of public works execution followed by the Government was not flexible enough for local bodies.

The local bodies are currently following the PWD manual designed for a centralised system.

Failed experiment

Under the decentralised system of governance, local bodies were encouraged to promote community contracting and social audit of public works.

But the experiments came a cropper in almost all panchayats and municipalities, as the existing system was not amenable for community contracting.

Apart from outdated standards and specifications, the rates for works are not revised to match the changes in market rates. This leads to unrealistic estimates.

The unholy nexus between contractors and engineers wielding discretionary powers often works out to the disadvantage of genuine beneficiary committees. The expert committee noted that community contracting was one of the biggest failures of the decentralised planning and implementation. As genuine beneficiary committees could not do the work, contractors masquerading as conveners of beneficiary committees took up work at a large number of places.

This opened up opportunities for abuse of systems through patronage and deals with elected local governments.

The problem became so intractable that Government insisted on competitive tender for all works costing Rs.25,000 or more.

A baseline information study conducted by the Government revealed that benami contractors were thriving under cover of beneficiary committees in most panchayats.

The lack of technical knowledge had also affected the quality of construction works taken up by beneficiary committees. Discrepancies in procedures and rates for procurement of materials and lack of accountability were other problems faced by the committees.

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