Imphal, November 22: Irregularities have been alleged in the tender of contractors conducted by the Manipur Police Housing Corporation (MPHC) for taking up infrastructure development in 26 colleges of the State.

Sources said the scheme is being taken up with the Rs 124.83 lakhs sanctioned to the Directorate of Education (U) by the Planning Commission of India under the Centre's Non Lapsable Pool.

The contractors of the MPHC have to construct college classrooms with the directorate as the nodal agency.

The sources added that the amount has been already deposited in the name of the corporation on March 27 this year.

Of the 26 colleges, seven are in the hill districts.

The construction was scheduled to complete by March next year, the sources said adding that each college will get Rs 5,09,000 lakhs Under the scheme.

A source from the MPHC said that it issued a tender notice for contractors registered to it on September 20 this year.

The tenders were opened on October 8 and the tender committee headed by the State Chief Secretary had completed procedures for allotting the work orders to some selected contractors.

On the other hand, some contractors who submitted the lowest tender amounts but were not selected have expressed suspicion of irregularities.

They alleged that the allotment of tenders was done to bidders with higher tender cost instead of the three lowest bidders.

The work should also be sanctioned to the two next lowest bidders in case each college's estimated cost mentioned in the tender notice does not conform with the rate Submitted by the lowest bidder.

According to the CPWD norms, the tenders should be held afresh if the submissions of the first three lowest bidders are not deemed justified.

Alleging that security deposits for separate colleges was not taken during the submission of the tender forms, the contractors said that this has allowed one contractor to participate in tenders for all the 26 colleges.

The CPWD norm states that no bidder can participate in more than three tenders.

However, MPHC Superintendent Engineer T Shyamacharan clarified that the lowest tender submissions were not selected as they fell short of the justified rate.

He said that the tender allotment could be done if there is not more than a difference of five percent between the justified rate and the submitted tender amount.

However, the first three bidders for all 26 colleges were not selected as their tenders were lower than the 5 percent of the justified rate.

This clause is well mentioned in CPWD manual Vol II, he added.

Shaymacharan said that the justified rate was decided by consulting with the markets rates published by the Public Works Department.

There is also a fear that the lower bidders will cease working after the work has been started.

On holding of fresh tenders, he said that it should be done only when no justified rate is found among the bidders.

In the tender for the 26 colleges, some rates other than those submitted by three lowest bidders were found to be justified.

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