Flouting rules become the norm
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: July 02 2015 -
In a State like Manipur, almost everyone seems to agree that the Government will not initiate any action to either curb the practice of flouting rules or control the unabated practice of corruption.
The silence maintained by the public over the issues on hand also seems to legitimize aberrations and breaking of rules.
The report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has exposed the flouting of financial rules by the Manipur Tribal Development Corporation Ltd (MTDC).
While doing so, the CAG has also exposed the official-contractor nexus in no uncertain terms.
The report said that contractors/suppliers working with MTDC had failed to “lift and deliver” items or execute works even as obliging officials and ministers had paid 100% advance.
The CAG report said that in July 2010, MTDC had placed supply orders worth Rs 2.35 crore to two firms for supply of steel and cement.
The corporation awarded the contract work for lifting and delivering the items to M/s ISS Transport Agency, Imphal at an estimated cost of Rs 1.44 crore.
The agency should complete lifting the items within 45 days failing which it should pay one per cent of the contract value for each day of delay subject to 10 per cent of the total contract value.
The CAG report said that MTDC had released 100 per cent of the contract value amounting to Rs 2.35 crore as advance. It was in contravention of all rules governing it.
Besides materials worth Rs 1.28 crore were delivered while the remaining items worth Rs 1.07 crore were not delivered even after 874 days when the audit was done.
Except for serving a perfunctory show cause notice no concrete actions were taken up against the agencies, said the report.
The report also cornered MTDC with regard to MoU signed with the Health department in December 2010 for the construction of a nursing and mid wifery school in Tamenglong. It had noted that there was irregular payment made for the benefit of the contractor.
With such reports pointing out the anomalies and irregularities, it is clearly evident that over the years, the process of distorting governance has been normalized to such an extent that there seems to be no way out of the quagmire.
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