Submit action-taken report of ongoing projects by Sept 30: Delhi LG to civic work agencies

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Delhi news: Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena has asked agencies involved in civil works to submit an action-taken report of ongoing projects in the city by September 30, according to an official statement on Friday. He also directed the agencies to thoroughly review the work procedures to improve quality, maintain financial probity and ensure their timely completion.

According to a statement from the LG Secretariat, Saxena has been reviewing various ongoing projects of the Delhi Development Authority, Municipal Corporation of Delhi, and New Delhi Municipal Council among others. He has observed that the projects are invariably exceeding the deadline resulting in cost escalations, it said."It is advised to reduce the number of tenders and contracts by floating a single tender for annual operation and maintenance of various similarly placed projects," the statement said.

"This will not only reduce paperwork and time overruns but will also bring in economy, besides enabling better monitoring and securing quality output."

In the interest of efficiency, this exercise should be undertaken expeditiously and an action taken report should be forwarded to the LG office, it said. The LG also said in many projects, the original financial scope according to the administrative approval invariably gets exceeded due to "poor planning, delay in execution and poor financial probity" resulting in major audits, Major Financial Accounting Irregularities (MAFI), or even CVC inquiry.

According to the statement, the LG also observed that in some projects due to routine planning and estimation, the administrative approvals and technical sanctions are approved at much higher rates when compared to the tender accepted rates.

This avoidable inflation of administrative approval or technical sanction, invariably results in faulty budgetary allocation, thereby blocking limited public funds which otherwise could have been utilized for other projects, the LG said in the statement. Saxena observed that operations and maintenance in various departments are being provided through multiple contract systems resulting in delay and often "substandard quality of work".

"It is hereby directed that officials at all levels involved in planning, execution and monitoring of civil or engineering projects should strictly adhere to the laid down rules and regulations both in letter and spirit," he said. The LG also directed officials to create a suitable deterrence mechanism, wherein the defaulters are identified, responsibilities fixed and exemplary action is taken in a time-bound manner to set the tone for efficient and smooth functioning. 

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