Report submitted by head of the store department incriminates contractor of submitting forged bills and supplying inferior quality saris
A month after an inquiry was initiated against a contractor appointed by the PMC to supply saris to the civic body’s conservancy staff, officials submitted an incriminating report against the contractor for submitting forged bills. The report was sent to the deputy municipal commissioner yesterday. The contractor would be blacklisted, fined five per cent of the tender amount and the difference in the pricing. The probe into the matter was initiated on the insistence of the civic chief.
MiD DAY report on May 29 highlighting complaints made by conservancy staff about the poor quality of saris they received from the PMC
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Though the first copy of the report was submitted two days ago, Deputy Municipal Commissioner Rajendra Jagtap sent it back stating that it was an ambiguous one and lacked several facts. “I sent back the report and also mentioned to suggest necessary action to be taken against the guilty contractor.”
It was Shriniwas Kandul, head of the store department, who submitted the revised report yesterday. He said, “There was a difference between actual bill and the one that was quoted. Apart from that, the quality of the saris was inferior. We received several complaints from the staff. So as per our protocol the contractor will be blacklisted and 5 per cent of the tender amount will be charged as a fine and also the difference in the bill.”
Since the financial year 2011-12, the civic body has been distributing more than 10 thousand saris and blouse pieces worth of Rs 1 crore. The tenders were floated and the firm named Poonam Dresses and Tailoring won the tender for making the lowest bid. The Standing Committee awarded the tender and work order was given on February 2, 2012.
As per the tender, price of each sari was fixed to Rs 490 and blouse piece for Rs 43. But investigation revealed that actual cost of each sari was Rs 410 and the blouse piece Rs 35. Considering that a total of 8,000 saris had already been distributed, the fraud amounted to over Rs 8 lakh.
“We checked all the records and discovered that until now the firm had distributed around eight thousand saris and had received a payment of Rs 40 lakh from the PMC. For the remaining saris, a fresh tender will be floated soon,” Kandul added.
When contacted, the contractor claimed that he has been providing services for the last 20 years and the bills were charged as per the quotation. u00a0
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