Concerned over the poor performance of Government’s construction body CPWD, the government has decided to outsource maintenance functions of the largest construction agency.
The initiative has been taken after a government study recommended gradual outsourcing of ‘maintenance functions’ of the CPWD for improving user services, establishing benchmarks and image improvement.
Earlier, in May this year, the ministry of housing and urban affairs had appointed a consultant ‘Ernst & Young’ to take stock of the ongoing situation in Central public works department. “There were complaints of poor performance of many officials affecting the progress work,” said an official of the ministry.
Durga Shanker Mishra, Secretary discussed the recommendations with the minister Narendra Singh Tomar. “It was decided that CPWD will initiate action to outsource maintenance functions in select areas of Delhi, to begin with and a road map will be evolved to implement other recommendations after detailed examination,” said a senior official.
“These recommendations have been made in the context of over 50% of works being implemented by CPWD getting delayed, lower levels of satisfaction over maintenance services, 70% of projects being of less than Rs 5 crore value each, 47% of total staff located in Delhi Region etc,” added the official.
In it’s report on ‘Working and Reorganisation of CPWD for Improved Efficiency and Effectiveness’ presented to the ministry, the consultant stressed on the need to redefine the focus of CPWD so as to promote it’s competency in the core area of construction for which maintenance of residential properties need to be outsourced.
“ It was noted that more than 50% of the total strength of CPWD of 21,806 personnel are currently engaged in maintenance works which account for only 20 % of its turn over by value,” added the official.
While suggesting that CPWD could continue as an attached office of the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs, the Report advocated radical reorganization of business processes and decision making systems for ensuring completion of projects in time, transparency, accountability, ease of working, better coordination etc. In place of the present eight levels of processing and decision making, two to three layers have been suggested by categorizing projects into small, medium and large.
As against present mode of selection of Director General of CPWD based on seniority, it has been recommended that DG be chosen from a panel of senior officers. Extensive use of technology in the form of integrated IT based ‘Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)’ system has been recommended for effective monitoring and resource utilization.
Since a large component of projects undertaken by CPWD are commissioned by various ministries and other agencies of the Government, the Report has suggested a clear definition of the obligation of such agencies like ensuring encumbrance-free land, approvals etc.
Proper integration of different wings of CPWD like civil, electrical, horticultural and architecture cadres under common command is among the other recommendations.
Government to Outsource works in its Construction body CPWD
· The Ministry of housing and urban affairs commissioned Ernst & Young in May this year to study the functioning of CPWD for suggesting measures for improvements.
· CPWD will initiate action to outsource maintenance functions in select areas of Delhi to begin with and a road map will be evolved to implement other recommendations after detailed examination.
· Recommendations have been made in the context of over 50% of works being implemented by CPWD getting delayed and lower levels of satisfaction over maintenance services.
· It was noted that more than 50% of the total strength of CPWD of 21,806 personnel are currently engaged in maintenance works which account for only 20 % of its turn over by value.