Kathmandu, Jan. 30:
The country that has more than thousand sick
infrastructure projects does not have an institutional mechanism to check and
ensure the quality of development work.
Unlike the practice in other countries, the
government agencies responsible for the infrastructure development either do
not have a capable engineering department or lack proper mechanism and human
resources.
"Some agencies have deliberately weakened their
engineering department so that the corruption can go unabated," said a
public procurement expert in the condition of anonymity.
According to him, the standard monitoring system has
almost collapsed in most of the government institutions, including the Public
Procurement Monitoring Office (PPMO) that has the responsibility to ensure good
governance in the public entity's procurement system.
In a report published recently, the Commission for
the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) concluded that at least 1,032
infrastructure development projects – such as roads, hydroelectricity,
irrigation, water supply, urban structures, airports and local infrastructure –
have been chronic and experiencing time and cost overrun.
Experts say that most of the contracts are awarded
in a hurry without proper feasibility study and implementation action plan.
"The development projects are planned and
executed on an ad hoc basis while some of them are the tool to fulfill the vested
interest of certain politician or a minister. There have been instances that
after awarding the contract, it was known that certain construction material
were not available," said the procurement expert.
Spokesperson at Nepal Electricity Authority Prabal
Adhikari is also of the view that the projects go on the floor without
sufficient study and preparation.
"Most of the infrastructure projects are facing
problem due to the inability to address the social and environmental issues in
the beginning. Social issues like land acquisition and environment impact
assessment (EIA) should be concluded before awarding the contract since most of
the projects are facing glitches in these two aspects," he said.
Adhikari said that the provision in the Public
Procurement Act to award the tender to the lowest bidders did not ensure
quality in development works.
The lowest bidders take the payment of the initial
20 per cent of the contract amount and never start the work.
The CIAA study concluded that the contractors had siphoned
off about Rs. 24 billion as 20 per cent initial mobilisation cost. Of the 1,848
tender agreements amounting to Rs. 118 billion were not completed in their
pre-set time period while about 56 per cent contracts were extended and have
remained as sick projects.
NEA Spokesperson Adhikari claimed that the
electricity monopoly has monitoring mechanisms at its headquarters and
consultants are also mobilised to monitor the quality of the construction in
the fields.
A Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport (MoPIT)
source said that the implementing agencies like the Department of Roads (DoR) need
a system overhaul.
The DoR is implementing 906 projects and 242 of them
are sick, said the anti-graft body. Similarly, the Department of Urban
Development and Building Construction has 442 chronic projects and the Department
of Water Resources and Irrigation has 235 incomplete projects.
"There are no effective monitoring mechanisms
at the implementing agencies. Quality control tools are rarely used," said
the MoPIT.
According to the rules,
if a contractor stops working for more than 30 consecutive days and does not
follow the action plan approved by the managing agency, it will be a
‘fundamental breach of the contract’ and the work should be expedited when
there is poor progress.
But very few contractors
have been punished for delaying the projects.
Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 31 January 2019.
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