Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Curbs on PWD engineers’ powers

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Dismayed by the widespread practice of Public Works Department (PWD) engineers sanctioning payments in excess of tender amounts to contractors, the Finance Department has issued orders imposing strict curbs on the system. They would no longer enjoy the power to pay more than the estimate amount to contractors. Their power to sanction payments in excess of the tender amount would also stand curbed.

The Finance Department’s decision has drawn sharp protests from contractors, who have termed it ‘arbitrary’ and ‘unrealistic’ and one that would result in a serious crisis in the construction sector governed by the PWD.

The Finance Department, however, feels that the powers that the PWD engineers have enjoyed so far have resulted only in widespread corruption and sharp decline in the quality of road construction and repair work.

Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac had recently stated in unequivocal terms that the Government would not allow the practice to continue.

Without mincing words, Dr. Isaac had stated that what was going on in the road sector was nothing short of ‘organised looting.’

He had also expressed his displeasure about the way contractors and officials of the PWD were trying to place the blame for the poor quality of roads in the State at the door of the Finance Department despite its having sanctioned a record sum of Rs.507 crore to clear pending bills during the last five months.

The Finance Department’s order, a clear reflection of its thinking about the state of affairs in the road construction sector, stipulates that the PWD must secure prior sanction from the Finance Department if it wishes to make any excess payment.

At present, the PWD engineers at various levels can sanction additional payments to the tune of 35 per cent of the estimate amount, 15 per cent by executive engineers, 25 per cent by superintending engineers and 35 per cent by chief engineers. These officers will no longer have the power to sanction such excess payments.

Similarly, the power that superintending engineers had to give technical sanction for 25 per cent excess payment in the case of works costing more than Rs.1 crore too has been clipped. Now the superintending engineers will have power to sanction only up to 5 per cent excess payment.

Similar cuts have been effected in the case of work costing up to Rs.15 lakh and that costing between Rs.15 lakh and Rs.1 crore.

In a statement here on Tuesday, the Government Contractors’ Association said the Finance Department’s decision would bring work to a halt in the construction sector.

The association attributed cost escalation to unrealistic fixation of PWD rates. While the open market price of cement was Rs.260 a sack, the rate permitted in the case of small contractors was only Rs.160, it said and added that if an escalation clause taking such aspects into account could be built into all contracts, contractors would welcome the Finance Department’s order.

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