Irregularities found in motor purchase tenders

Sukhmeet Bhasin

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, March 7

A meeting of the MC Finance and Contract Committee (F&CC) was held under the presidentship of Mayor Balwant Rai Nath here today. At the meeting, irregularities were found in the first proposal of purchasing two 90 and 100 bhp motors for the main disposal ahead of the monsoon season.

These irregularities were found in the documents submitted to the MCB by both the contractors while filing the tender. Both the contractors claimed to have dealership of the same company, owing to which the senior deputy mayor raised this issue and instructed the MC XEN to check the dealership certificate of both the contractors within two days and if they did not produce the right certificates, tender should be cancelled and floated again.

Besides, the proposals of purchasing cement and sewerage-rainwater frame were approved on condition that quality and quantity of these products would be checked by F&CC members and only then they will be kept in the store.

MC Commissioner Sanyam Aggarwal could not attend the meeting as he was not keeping good health. Other F&CC members senior deputy mayor Tarsem Goyal, deputy mayor Gurinderpal Kaur Mangat, SAD councillors Harmander Singh Sidhu and Nirmal Singh Sandhu, XEN Sandeep Gupta and Superintendent Makhan Lal were present.

It is pertinent to mention that the MC had released a tender of Rs 16.25 lakh for the purchase of two pumps of 90 and 100 bhp for main disposal on December 22, 2017, through e-tendering. For this tender, Shakti Engineering company quoted 13.50 plus rate (totalling Rs 18.44 lakh) and Bansal Brothers, Bathinda, quoted 7 per cent less ( totaling Rs 15.31 lakh). Both the contractors claimed to give Jyoti and Follomore company pumps. Both claimed to have a dealership of these companies in the documents submitted with the MCB.

It is also learnt that in the beginning BJP leaders and senior deputy mayor Tarsem Goyal and deputy mayor Gurinderpal Kaur Mangat raised an objection before Mayor Balwant Rai Nath for not calling them in the joint meeting of SAD-BJP councillors organised regarding the Harsimrat Kaur Badal function at Talwandi Sabo and not taking them into consideration for holding the meeting on March 8 and later postponing it to March 12.