Title - 'Bills for railway overbridge inflated'

The audit report of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has pointed out some financial irregularities in execution of the Omkar railway overbridge project at Memco in North Zone.

For instance, the contractor of the project had claimed 5% as overhead cost for the extra items used during construction and 10% as contract profit, in its bills submitted to the AMC. Interestingly, the civic body had paid these bills despite the fact that, as per tender rules, only 3% percent overhead cost can be paid for a project.

The extra amount paid to the contractor should be recovered, the report has stated.

The report also points out that many details of the project and payments made had not been made clear by the civ ic body. For example, the material used in the construction of the overbridge had not been specified.

Further, in many cases the payment made was different from the actual bill while the bills for purchase of steel, cement and other stocks were missing. This had created ambiguity about the purchases and the payments made for them.

The report has also pointed out that the civic body had paid Rs19.34 lakh for the barricade at the construction site. Yet the consultant had failed to specify in the tender the fact of the AMC owning the barricade. The report states that as this was the consultant's mistake, the consultant should be fined for the lapse. Sources at the civic body said that the contractor had apparently taken away the barricade after construction was over.

Further, the AMC had paid the contractor as per the market rates of steel, cement and materials. However, tender rules require that payment be made as per Statement of Rate (SOR) approved by the AMC. The extra amount paid by civic body should be recovered from the contractor, the audit report states.