Lack of monitoring and quality dries up Tashiding’s water supply project

FROM THE CAG REPORT
GANGTOK, 05 July: Monitoring has been a quality in perennial short-supply among government departments, and the CAG Reports are littered with the crores wasted and projected benefits lost due to the failure of departments to keep track of projects being implemented by them. The latest Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India for Sikkim for the years ended 31 March 2011 presents many such instances, one of which details how the Water Security and Public Health Engineering Department has made a mess of the Rs. 2.61 crore water supply scheme undertaken for Tashiding in West Sikkim.
“Failure of the Department to effectively monitor the execution of a project resulted in the intended benefit of providing potable water not reaching the population of Tashiding for two and a half years. Besides, there was a loss of Rs. 76.35 lakh to the Government,” the Report introduces.
The project in question is the “Augmentation of Tashiding Bazaar Water Supply Scheme” taken up in June 2007 for implementation by the Department. A loan for NABARD provided Rs. 2.22 crore with the balance of Rs. 39.19 lakh coming from the State exchequer.
The project envisaged drawing water from Ringyang khola and supplying Tashiding consumers with a minimum of 75 litres per head per day. This supply was projected to hold good for a minimum of 25 years and earn Rs. 3.14 lakh per annum by way of water tax. But that would obviously happen if the project began supplying water to begin with. That has still not happened. On the last check by CAG, drinking water needs of Tashiding continue to be partially met from the existing water supply source developed by RMDD.
The finances secured, the civil works component of the project was awarded in September 2007 to contractor Kabita Pradhan who had made the lowest bid [which was 14% above the estimated cost] of Rs. 59.93 lakh. The work order issued to her gave one year’s time to construct saddle blocks, anchor pillars, jhora crossing, distribution system, a 3 lakh litre capacity water reservoir at Tashiding, three zonal reservoir tanks of One lakh capacity each, a sedimentation tank and chowkidar quarters and protective works.
The contractor could not meet the September 2008 deadline. Inexplicably, even two and a half years past the deadline, during the Audit Scrutiny of the project in May 2011, only 60 per cent of the work had been completed, and what is disconcerting is the audit finding that “virtually no progress” had taken place since December 2009. The delay notwithstanding, Rs. 1.92 crore of the Rs. 2.61 crore budget had been used up by then – Rs. 1.61 crore in the execution of departmental work and Rs. 30.76 lakh towards payment released to the contractor.
The CAG Report records that departmental officers served reminders on the contractor when the civil works were being delayed, but also points out that they did not follow-up on the reminders. A project scheduled for completion within a year is now nearly four years pending and yet the 10% [of the project cost] penalty clause included in the Agreement has not been invoked leading to a loss of Rs. 26.12 lakh to the Government and extending undue favour to the contractor, the Report states.
The Department accepted the delay and explained it to hostile terrain, objection from land owners, re-execution of sub-standard works etc. It is obvious that the terrain did not become hostile after the project was initiated and the challenge of the topography should have been factored into the original projections. As for objection by landowners through whose properties the supply lines would pass, this is not a new phenomenon in Sikkim and has held up many projects. It is perhaps to address this problem that the State Government recently made it mandatory for every developmental project to begin with a public hearing at the gram sabha level so that everyone is taken into confidence and consensus established in advance. As for substandard work, proper monitoring would have ensured course-corrections in time.
While on substandard quality of work, the CAG Report informs that water continuously leaked from the reservoir tank from several places which had to be demolished and constructed afresh. The protective wall behind one of the three zonal tanks was damaged and in need of restoration itself and the GCI sheets used for roofing of the sedimentation tank was found to be of poor quality. What is more, the contractor not only shifted the location of one of the zonal tanks without the knowledge of the Department, but even reduced its capacity from One lakh litres to 60,000 letres without authorisation. It was this same tank which had sprung multiple leaks and had to be reconstructed.
The denial caused to the people of Tashiding is obvious, and the CAG Report has also worked out how expensive this project is turning out to be for the State exchequer. The delay has caused a loss of Rs. 76.35 lakh on account of blocking of borrowed funds and payment of interest for an asset which has not yet been created [Rs. 1.92 crore loan from NABARD at 6.5% interest per annum aggregated to Rs. 42.45 lakh], loss of potential revenue of Rs. 7.78 lakh by way of water tax and non-levy of Rs. 26.12 lakh penalty clause. On its part, the Department informed CAG that imposition of penalty was being examined.