BENGALURU: The national embarrassment faced by the state government over the alleged 40% commission demanded from contractors could be set right to some extent as an online system for contractor payments is set to become operational.
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, in his budget speech on Friday, said, “An Online Project Management System will be started to supervise the progress of projects under the jurisdiction of the Corporations and to make online bill payments directly to the contractors.”
The move has been welcomed by contractors and top officials of government bodies who said it will ensure transparency.
The BBMP, which deploys the maximum number of contractors for its works, and the Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Development Board have already made the system completely online while in the case of BWSSB, BDA, Irrigation and other departments, it is only partially online as of now.
A contractor told The New Indian Express, “I am still owed Rs 50 lakh by the government. I have submitted my bills long ago and am still awaiting payment for the same despite numerous reminders. It will be a big relief if everything becomes transparent.”
This reporter has often spotted contractors waiting for hours inside BDA office for clearance of their dues. Prashanth Kumar, Chief Administrative Officer, BWSSB, told TNIE, “In the case of the Water Board, we make the payment online through RTGS but the contractors still need to submit all their bills physically for it. We have now called for tenders to take the submission process online too. The BBMP has made the whole process online.”
Asked about the advantages of it, he said, “It will ensure complete transparency. If taken online, one will know where exactly a specific bill gets stuck. The payments for contractors will become much faster.”
Another top official, on the condition of anonymity, said, “This step will definitely reduce corruption to some extent. Often contractors wait for months for clearance of their bills and some officials need to be bribed to clear the bills. Bills submitted go missing and no one knows what happened to them sometimes.”
A senior BBMP official said since 2015 all their processes pertaining to contractors have gone online.