CAG slams AP on project delays – TOI – 30.3.11

‘Cost Overrun Of 206 Projects Resulted In 36,165 Crore Loss’

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Hyderabad: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has pulled up the state government for the huge cost overrun due to inordinate delay in completion of 206 projects in various sectors and spending Rs 36,165 crore on these projects which have not yielded any results.
    In its report ending March 31, 2010, that was tabled in the Assembly on Tuesday, the CAG noticed instances of indecisiveness, lack of administrative oversight and lack of concerted action at various levels which resulted in incurring huge expenditure of Rs 1,476.30 crore on various project works. It also found undue favours granted at every stage to Emaar MGF Land Ltd by Tirupati Urban Development Authority (TUDA) in the satellite township project taken up for development by the company.
    Some of the significant observations of the CAG are fraudulent medical reimbursement claims in 162 cases, fraudulent LTC claims in 994 cases of school education and tribal welfare departments, cost overrun in construction of BC hostels, deficiencies in non-completion of works, execution of inadmissible works in MP local area development scheme etc.
    Among other shortcomings pointed by the CAG are, deficiencies like incorrect payment of advances of Rs 111.84 crore to contractors in eight irrigation projects and loss of revenue of Rs 33.07 crore due to incorrect stipulation of interest rate, non-adherence to tender conditions by Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) in auctioning of land for development resulting in undue benefit of Rs 239.88 crore to the bidders. Despite facing severe power shortage, government failed to cancel the allotment of land in Visakhapatnam district to Hindujas to set up power plant and allot it to other parties who were willing to supply power at competitive rates, the CAG said.
    Scrutiny of 50 out of 77 transactions in Chittoor, East Godavari, Karimnagar and Visakhapatnam districts relating to land transfer by government to various parties revealed undue benefit of Rs 101.43 crore to the parties. The report says that due to non-incorporation of safeguards in agreements, the contractor of PVNR Expressway got undue benefit of Rs 86.67 crore. The deficient bidding procedure of HMDA resulted in awarding of work for higher value by Rs 23.68 crore in package-II, it said.
    On the irrigation front, the report said, bad planning and flawed contracts only benefited contractors without commensurate benefit to the people. It did not provide irrigation to even a single acre, the report said.
‘Transco’s record poor’
    The comptroller and auditor general’s report tabled in the state assembly on Tuesday said APTransco’s performance in terms of project management, operation and maintenance, grid management, transmission losses and monitoring systems was not up to the mark. The report said the APTransco could add only 56-61% of the planned capacity addition from 2005-06 to 2009-10. The company had cited delay in getting forest clearances, delay in civil works, frequent breakdowns in newly installed equipment etc. as the reasons for not achieving its target. The company, the report said, could not complete its projects as per the schedule and the time overrun ranged between one to 62 months. TNN