BENGALURU:A superintending engineer accused in a Rs 600-crore scam has just been promoted.
The Siddaramaiah government’s claim about zero tolerance towards corruption has taken a hit with the promotion.
While D Udayashankar, the engineer in question, goes on to become chief engineer, the Lokayukta is waiting for the government’s sanction to prosecute him.
The government has been sitting on the Lokayukta’s request for sanction to act against 15 senior engineers and officials of the Public Works Department (PWD), including Udayashankar, since July 2013.
On February 13 this year, the government issued an order promoting Udayashankar to the rank of chief engineer, and posted him to the Karnataka Health Systems Reforms and Development Project. Express has accessed a copy of the order.
Piecemeal Deal: The case against Udayashankar relates to the use of special grants for 2011-12, meant to take up works on roads, bridges and culverts in Ramanagaram division of the PWD.
High-ranking engineers and PWD officials allegedly used ingenious ways to favour two contractors.
They split the project into hundreds of small contracts of less than Rs 20 lakh to gain exemption from the Karnataka Transparency Act, which stipulates mandatory e-tendering for any works above Rs 20 lakh.
FIRs Against 33
The Lokayukta has filed FIRs against 33, including engineers, officials and contractors, and the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had rapped the state government for a total lack of supervision.
The superintendent engineer and the chief engineer are required to regularly monitor and supervise such works. The auditors were also shocked that quality control reports were not available in respect of any of the works. The chief engineer gave grants of Rs 212.13 crore without prioritising the works, and did not submit any budget estimates, the CAG report said.
The project was split into 1,311 works, with each estimate below Rs 20 lakh, to avoid competitive bidding.
Surprisingly, 891 of the 1,311 contracts were awarded to just two contractors from whom the department did not collect any earnest deposit in many cases, the CAG has pointed out.
Govt Rewards Tainted Engineer
Ramana Reddy, principal secretary, Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms, told Express his department was the competent authority to grant sanction for prosecution of officials of the rank chief engineer and above.
For engineers below that rank, the PWD is the authority. In the case of Udayashankar, the PWD should grant permission, since he was a superintendent engineer, he said.
According to sources in the Public Works Department, Udayashankar’s promotion was cleared at the highest level.
In fact, Udayashankar was shortlisted for promotion in October 2014, a development reported by Express on October 10, 2014.
The report prompted the state government to keep the proposal in abeyance.
Narayanaswamy, Lokayukta Superintendent of Police, Ramanagaram district, told Express Lokayukta Additional Director-General of Police Prem Shankar Meena had instructed him to submit a report.
The anti-corruption agency is likely to take up the matter with the government after going through the investigation report, sources said.