CAG report reveals corruption and lack of transparency in Mumbai Municipal Corporation

The functioning of Mumbai Municipal Corporation lacks transparency, and the CAG report highlights the issue of works being awarded without tendering.

During a session, MLA Amit Satam requested Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to read out the relevant points from the report. With the President's approval, Fadnavis read out the points, which revealed corruption within the corporation. Fadnavis further stated that the matter will be investigated by the appropriate authorities.

Devendra Fadnavis stated that he was presenting some points with consideration for the sentiment of the House, which is not a usual practice for ministers to discuss CAG reports in such a way. The House had previously announced on October 31, 2022, that an audit of the Municipal Corporation would be conducted by the CAG. The audit covered nine sections and a total of Rs 12,000 crore worth of work. However, the audit did not include any works carried out during the Covid period, as this matter is still under consideration.

The audit has been conducted from November 28, 2019 to November 2022.

• One of the significant findings is that two departments of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation awarded 20 projects without any tender process. These projects are valued at approximately 214 crores and were not subject to tendering.
• Works amounting to 4,755 crores were executed without any agreement between the contractor and the BMC, and as a result, the municipal corporation cannot take any legal action against the contractor.
• For 13 municipal projects worth 3,357 crores, a third-party auditor was not appointed, which means that there is no mechanism in place to accurately assess how these projects were executed.
• According to the CAG report, there were instances of a lack of transparency, inadequate planning, and careless expenditure of funds.
• As per the 1993 Development Plan, 32,394 square meters of land in Dahisar were reserved for a playground, garden, and maternity home. However, in December 2011, the municipal corporation decided to acquire the land, and the final assessment was 349 crores, which is 716 per cent higher than the initial estimation.
• The surprising fact about the aforementioned land is that the acquisition money has been paid, but the land is encroached upon. Hence, if the land is to be redeveloped, Devendra Fadnavis informed the Assembly that 80 crores would be spent on rehabilitation.
• The IT department awarded an SAP contract worth 159 crores to the previous contractor without going through the tender process. An annual maintenance cost of 37 crores was paid to SAP India, but the report showed that no services were rendered.

The responsibility of managing contract tenders has been given to SAP, and there are allegations of tender manipulation. However, no action has been taken regarding these allegations.

In the bridge department, the works for Dr E Moses and Keshavrao Khade Marg were awarded without proper approval, resulting in a benefit of 27 crores for the contractor. Devendra Fadnavis also mentioned that 50 per cent of the bridge work should have been completed by now, but as of now, only 10 per cent has been completed.

Devendra Fadnavis has made allegations that works worth 54 crores were added to the old works without any tender process, which were supposed to be awarded to four different contractors in July 2019. However, they were awarded to a single contractor. Additionally, he accused the administration of the Municipal Corporation of awarding the Malad Pumping Station work, which was worth 464 crores, to an ineligible tenderer in a corrupt and non-transparent manner.