3-member panel to vet tenders over Rs 50 crore amid allegations of corruption in award of contracts

The committee is headed by retired judge Rathnakala, retired water resources department secretary BG Gurupadaswamy and retired state audit and accounts department director K Nandakumar.

The government notification followed a public announcement of forming such a committee by chief minister Basavaraj Bommai in Shivamogga last year.

The committee will vet estimates, tender documents and other related aspects before giving go ahead to the tender of a government contract valued above Rs 50 crore.

Bommai’s announcement of this step at a media conference in Shivamogga last month to raise what he called to increase the levels of transparency in the award of government contractors and to plug loopholes followed the alleged suicide of a Belagavi-based contractor Santhosh Patil. He allegedly ended his life in Udupi, last month, over unpaid bills, pointing fingers at then rural development and panchayat raj minister KS Eshwarappa.

The chief minister has also ordered that no officer in urban development and rural development departments will henceforth issue verbal orders to contractors to take up projects.

The death only exacerbated the crisis for the less than a year old Bommai regime which has been trying to fend off allegations from the contractors’ body that they have to pay a commission of up to 40% on each successful tender.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, too, addressing a public rally in Bengaluru last month, described the state’s BJP regime as a “40% commission” government, while urging people to vote for the AAP in the forthcoming assembly elections to get a “0% commission” governance.

The southern state is due for assembly polls early next year, and the ruling BJP has been trying to come clean amid a tide of accusations of demands for a cut in government contracts.