Chennai: In a bid to weed out corruption and plug loopholes in the tender procedure, the state municipal administration and water supply (MAWS) department has directed the local bodies not to seek site visits and machinery certificates during tenders. Contractors had been long complaining about these two conditions, which were used by officials to arm-twist them for kickbacks.“The contractors must ideally visit the spot to begin work and it is the job of the assistant engineers to ensure the contractor deployed adequate machinery during the visit. If it is not there, they can be penalized. Officials can verify these details with the contractors after lowest bidder (L1) is ascertained too,” an official privy to the meeting said.At the first meeting chaired by MAWS secretary Gagandeep Singh Bedi with all heads of departments on Friday, he directed the civic bodies to do away with the clauses in tenders demanding this certificate and provision for site visits.As per the existing procedure, a tender is opened on the TN Tenders website and contractors apply for specific work and projects. GCC seeks machinery certificates and site visit certificates approved by its officials from all contractors to be eligible for the bids.“This certificate is given to the pre-selected contractors alone. At least a hundred writ petitions have been filed against GCC by various contractors for not issuing this certificate. I myself have appeared in court seeking removal of this clause, as it is naturally the duty of officials to inspect and penalize contractors if they go wrong. This will save at least 20% to the exchequer,” said R Ramarao, Greater Chennai Contractors Association president.“If this clause is removed, contractors can directly participate in bidding and the L1 will be ascertained. They can get the work order and begin work,” said Ramarao.Officials said such certificate restrictions were introduced only in 2023.GCC officials have been directed not to carry out tender value escalations and ensure the budget is prepared accurately to the project value from their end. They have also been directed not to float limited tenders.Besides this, the meeting also directed all IAS officers, including corporation commissioners, deputy commissioners and regional deputy commissioners to begin inspections by 7am, ensure public places are clean, solid waste management works are smooth and posters are removed.
