The civic administration, which is in step with the Centre's Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan, is now on a mission to clean up its ranks of corruption. For starters, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation commissioner Praveen Pardeshi invited the chief of the state's Anti-Corruption Bureau to come and talk to senior civic officers so they can work towards a 'Corruption-free' BMC.
On Wednesday, Director General of Police (ACB) Parambir Singh briefed heads of departments, deputy and assistant municipal commissioners and representatives of various unions about provisions of anti-graft laws and the action prescribed under law against the culprits.
Pardeshi's initiative comes at the end of a long train of big-money scams in recent years involving civic works – be it road repairs, desilting and e-tendering. Last year, the state government asked the BMC to probe 2,001 civic staff and officers accused of corruption. Recently, three employees were nabbed for accepting bribe.
SCAM
E-tendering
|
Road repairs
|
De-silting
|
| Rs 100 cr |
Rs 1700 cr |
Rs 150 cr |
| Asst commissioner, 62 other officials indicted |
169 officials found complicit, 14 arrested |
24 officials suspended, FIR against 24 contractors |
| BMC engineers tinkered with the e-tendering system, introduced to bring transparency, to favour some contractors and prevent others from filing bids. A departmental inquiry indicted 63 civic officials including an assistant municipal commissioner in the scam that came to light in 2014. The 3-member inquiry panel’s report was recently approved by the civic chief. |
Construction and repair work on 234 roads was found to be substandard by an inquiry panel set up by the civic authority in 2015. While 15% of the funds were divvied up among BMC officials involved in the scam, the contractor made 30-35% profit. Fifty-six of the 169 BMC officials found complicit in the scam have appealed to the civic body to reconsider their punishment. |
In 2015, when Mumbai witnessed heavy flooding, it was found that BMC contractors had siphoned off the money from the river de-silting project. The civic body suspended 24 officers and an FIR was lodged against 24 contractors. The civic body will soon release a comprehensive report on the irregularities committeed, and is likely to blacklist 32 contractors, said civic officials. |
The head of a civic department, who did not want to be identified, told DNA, "BMC's image is being tarnished due to some black sheep. The commissioner's initiative is to strengthen the civic body's efforts to curb interface between employees and members of the public by making the most of online services."
"A large amount of paperwork has been reduced [through digitisation] and more will be done. The fresh drive against is to convey the message of zero tolerance towards corruption," the BMC officer said.
He said ACB chief Parambir Singh suggested that senior officers not be spared but be made part of the inquiries against along with juniors.
"Pardeshi suggested that the civic body appoint an ombudsman so the staff will be able to argue cases filed against them. This window will be opened to verify whether the cases are fake or filed mala fide,'' the officer said.
DGP Singh said the the civic body should send reports on in-house corruption cases "at the earliest" to the ACB so it can take further action.
Prakash Devdas, the president of civic union Mumbai Mahanagar Palika Karmachari Mahasangh, hoped that Pardeshi's initiative would bring transparency.
Talking about bribes given to expedite processing of pending files or to acquire certain licences, he said, "Some people won't mind paying money to get their work done, even if it is not demanded in some cases. Unless the number of loopholes in execution of work are closed, corruption cannot be eliminated.''
