Sunday, 6 July 2014

The Invisible Corruption



Why invisible  ?

Because it is cleverly camouflaged in the " Terms of Contract " that companies sign with Central Government / State Governments / Municipal Corporations / umpteen Government Agencies

This invisible corruption is rampant in Infrastructure Projects that get spread over months / years

And every possible trick / excuse ( officially called " Reasons " ) is used to ensure that these Projects get delayed as much as possible !

Examine carefully and you will find that the more a Project  gets delayed , the more that Contractor stands to gain ! Anyone believing otherwise , has got to be naive  !

How  ?

These contracts contain " Cost Escalation Clauses " which decide the extra / additional amounts payable to the Contractor , over and above the ( so called ) " Fixed Price " quoted at the time of tendering

Under these clauses , the Contractor is eligible to claim / demand extra payments , whenever

*  SOMETHING  HAPPENS

   - costs of certain " Inputs " go up above a certain agreed level , eg :

    #  Prices of Raw Materials
    #  Prices of Water / Gas / Electricity
    #  Cost of Labor
    #   Foreign Exchange Rate
    #   Consumer Price Index
    #   Interest Rate

    If any of these go up above certain agreed levels , the quoted price to go up by X/Y/Z amount , as per the Formula which determines the % age contribution of these elements , in the quoted price

*  SOMETHING  DOES  NOT  HAPPEN

   #  Environment Clearance for the Project
   #  Land acquisition and Handover to Contractor
   #  Hundreds of permissions from dozens of Govt Depts/Muni Corporations
   #  Issue of Import Licenses
   #  Release of Foreign Exchange
   #  Issue of NOC from umpteen departments
   #  Issue of Compliance Certificates from various departments
   #  Approval of Designs / Design Change Requests ( from Govt as well )
  

If any of these are NOT issued / given by certain " Dates "  ( very easily managed  !  ) , then the quoted price to go up by X / Y / Z  amount

Invariably , these clauses are heavily  tilted in favor of the Contractor

And equally invariably , colluding Government officers / bureaucrats / politicians , responsible for drafting / approving these " Clauses " , leave them vague !

This is apart from framing the Tender Specifications in such a manner that only a certain preferred bidder will qualify !

If you doubt what I have said , then just file a RTI application , asking for a copy of,

*  Original Tender Document
*  Final Contract
*  Number of Price Revision Requests received / granted

for any project of your choice  !

If Narendra Modi is keen to reduce corruption , he should start by instituting MODEL  INFRASTRUCTURE  PROJECT  CONTRACT , which clearly spells out what price / time revisions can be granted and when

At the same time , internally , there must be a provision for DEMOTION / PENALTY for those officers who fail to give permissions / approvals / NOC etc, on specified dates ( milestones for the project )


*  hemen  parekh  (  07  July  2014  /  Mumbai  )

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Make    Yourself    Heard

Dear Visitor :

It is time for YOU to speak up - and demand that YOU are heard

By emailing this suggestion - incorporating your OWN improvements - to the following Policy Makers

(  Just multiple copy all the following Email IDs into the Recipient column of your Outlook and Copy / paste this suggestion in the Message Box ) :


    narendramodi1234@gmail.com; 38ashokroad@gmail.com;ajaitley@del5.vsnl.net.in; jayant.sinha19@sansad.nic.in;piyush.goyal@gov.in;nitin.gadkari@nic.in; spprabhu1@rediffmail.com;bandaru@sansad.nic.in;smritizirani@nic.in;nsitharaman@nic.in; ravis@sansad.nic.in;sureshprabhu@irctc.co.in;prakash.j@sansad.nic.in;secy-ipp@nic.in; amitabh.kant@nic.in; shaktikanta.das@nic.in; rsecy@nic.in; adhia1981@gmail.com; ceo-niti@nic.in; atul-chaturvedi@nic.in; uma.bharati@sansad.nic.in; d.pradhan@sansad.nic.in; rprudy.office@gmail.com; rudypr@rediffmail.com; eam@mea.gov.in; mosvks@mea.gov.in; mvnaidu@sansad.nic.in; mnaqvi@sansad.nic.in; rao.inderjit@sansad.nic.in; mljoffice@gov.in; sadananda.gowda@sansad.nic.in; ministerminority@gov.in; najmah@sansad.nic.in; minister-ca@nic.in; ramvilas.paswan@sansad.nic.in; gandhim@sansad.nic.in; akumar-alpha@sansad.nic.in; jpnadda@sansad.nic.in; hm.moca@nic.in; geete@sansad.nic.in; simratbadal@yahoo.com; ns.tomar@nic.in; rmsingh@sansad.nic.in; tc.gehlot@sansad.nic.in; dr.harshvardhan@sansad.nic.in   


     





No comments:

Post a Comment