Lost, at Roads & Bridges

editorial:

The Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India is an annual ritual which shocks with each edition. The scale of misappropriation uncovered by the auditors has been noticeably diminishing over the recent years and while this is as a definite positive, what remains worrying is the continuing disconnect between policy commitments and ground delivery stemming from uninspired administration.
The Integrated Audit of the Roads & Bridges Department detailed elsewhere in this paper, warns in its conclusion that unless the Department woke up to its role in the State and its importance to developmental goals, all of Sikkim’s aspirations could come to naught.
This is not an exaggeration because connectivity is a very important facilitator of development and if the State did not work out a coherent road policy, planning will remain disjointed and development piecemeal. Many arms of governance need to work in coordination, collaborating expertise and energy towards a clear developmental goal. A Roads & Bridges Department which prioritises contractor cartels over value for money and pays no heed to the need for quality work for the people, institutionalises compromises which, because of the noxious culture of profiteering it promotes, could derail everything planned for the State. This is so because the degeneration is obviously not limited to the Roads & Bridges Department and is a contamination which has spread everywhere. But let’s continue with the Roads & Bridges example to understand how aspects of administration which escape notice most times, can cause debilitating set-backs. The Department responsible for Sikkim’s roads and bridges, does not have a single roads or bridges engineering or design specialist. When it comes to designing bridges, the Detailed Project Report, incorporating the design and engineering aspects, are prepared by consultants hired by contractors. This is worrying because not only is there the chance that the design and engineering aspects will be tilted to serve the convenience of the contractor, the department will also have no way knowing better because it does not have any experts to whet the proposal. Naturally then, it cannot even monitor the work with any intelligence. Quality, a condition reiterated often by the elected leaders, cannot be scientifically guaranteed in Sikkim because the Roads & Bridges Department does not have a functioning quality control laboratory. The construction of roads is a very technical task and although these are specified in the notices inviting tenders, none of the projects were taken through all the specified tests, not even the mandatory ones. How does one guarantee quality then?
The mess at the Roads & Bridges Department needs no further reiteration, and the CAG Report makes a rather detailed unravelling of all that ails this Department. It also includes recommendations and conveys very clear and dire warnings to the Government to whip this unit into shape. Similar warnings in the past about some other departments have led to reasonably successful course corrections powered by strong administrative realignments. It could happen with the Roads & Bridges Department as well, but that would require direct intervention which calls for resolute political will since the lobbies at work in this case are very strong. Left to the shaming, accept it, it is one, in the CAG Report alone and in hopes of an effective intervention by the Public Accounts Committee, a resolution will not come about. 1,582 paragraphs included in 655 Inspection Reports in respect of Civil Departments and 180 paragraphs included in 67 Inspection Reports in respect of autonomous bodies issued up to 2009-10 by the CAG office, are still pending settlement. The findings and recommendations on Roads & Bridges will become just one more file taken under consideration and kept gathering dust, unless the powers-that-be take note and direct action.